Thame.net

Author: Sonja Francis

  • Where Have All The NHS Dentists Gone?

    A THAME councillor has raised the question of a lack of NHS dentists in the town, particularly for children.
    Speaking at Thame Town Council’s AGM last night, (Tuesday), Cllr David Dodds, said:”There is a growing inequality of health care, particularly dental health care. It would seem that dentists in Thame have concluded that the new NHS contracts do not allow them to offer the quality of service and materials they feel necessary to enable them to offer adequate treatment.
    “Dental plans for children cost around

  • Thame Post Office Closed

    JUST days after Thame’s MP Boris Johnson, declined to sign an Early Day Motion to fight ‘Ghost Town Britain’, the sub-post office in Park Street,Thame, has closed.
    (See May 19 report-Main News page)
    According to the Manager, the business has declined over recent years, mainly due to the government taking away the pensions allowance from sub post offices and the arrival near-by of the Sainsbury store.
    The Post Office managers have suffered from ill health recently, following two robberies and intend to move to Spain.

    A resident of Park Street, who wished not to be named, told ThameNews.Net: “I must admit that in recent months I only used the sub post office for the odd stamp or emergency card or wrapping paper. Now, like a lot of things, now its gone I shall miss it and wish I’d used it more. I think it’s a shame that the Post Office didn’t support it more, instead of gradually taking away things like Car Tax renewals and Pass Port applications.
    “I feel sorry that all these little shops are going. When my children were younger, it was very convenient for ice creams and drinks but that side of business has been taken away by Sainsbury’s up the road.
    “Apart from being very convenient for older people, the post office was a regular meeting place for pensioners on a Monday morning and I feel very sorry for them because they will have to somehow get into town to get their pensions if they don’t have bank accounts.”

    Mike Dyer, another resident and ex-user of the Sub Post Office, said: “With the loss of customers going in to collect pensions and allowances, went the sales of incidentals like cigarettes and sweets but the biggest nail in the coffin came when the Park Street post office applied for a National Lottery terminal, only to see it granted to Sainsbury’s.
    “I for one, refuse to use the Post Office in town. Its often difficult to find somewhere to park, and there are always queues. I personally go to either Stone, Long Crendon or Haddenham when I am out and about with my business.”

    The building has been sold and will be turned into a residential property for which planning permission has been granted.

  • Thame Ladies Win Cup Final By Allan Shriver

    SEVEN local girls, playing in the Thame Under-16s team in the Oxfordshire Girls Football League, have won the 2006 County Championship Cup Final against Carterton.
    And they won it in FA Cup Final style ? in a penalty shoot-out, following a nil-nil draw and nail-biting extra time.

    The Cup Final was played in a chilly wind at the Oxford City ground, whilst other Cup Finals for other age groups were being played on the same day, Saturday, May 13.

    The win was made particularly extraordinary since Thame played the full game, plus extra time and the penalty shoot with the same seven players and no subs, while opposing team Carterton had three subs to rest their players.

    Just three years ago the same seven Thame area girls, plus a few others, took Lord Bill?s School?s Under 13s team to the national finals in the English Schools Football Association (ESFA) Coca-Cola National Cup League, playing the final on Liverpool?s hallowed turf of Anfield, but losing the final to Thomas Telford School on the full-size pitch.

    Amy Cummings, Charlotte Wild, Emily Shriver, Gemma Rockingham, Leanne Carlisle, Lindsey Ackland and Rose Osbourne took the trophy for Thame Girls Under 16s this year.

    The bitter irony is that these girls may never get to represent Thame again, since they will be too old to play in the girls league, and the Thame Ladies disbanded a few years ago.

    Team coach, Derek Mansfield said, ?These girls play very well as a team; we have played all season with the same seven players, beating 12 other teams, some larger, taller, stronger teams, from across the county. It would be a great shame if our girls had to play for another town after this cup win.?

    Commenting on the final game, coach Mansfield said: “Carterton was ready for us this week, because when we played them last week, we took the game right to their net, playing practically the entire game in their half of the field, but we just couldn?t score (it too was a nil-nil draw). In both halves of regular time in the final, each team had four to five shots on goal, but were either saved by the keeper or were unlucky for the striker.
    ?In extra time, each team had another two or three shots on goal, but we still had a nil-nil draw at the end of extra time,? he added. ?Walking off the field, our girls tongues were dragging in the dirt – they were that tired. I?m so proud that they each gave 110 per cent for such long game.
    ?Given that these girls don?t really practice much, partly due to their upcoming GCSE exams, they play very well together. They have been playing as a team, with an occasional extra player, for the past three or four years.
    “Thanks to our kit sponsorship from the Haddenham Motorist Centre, the girls look like a good team, as well as playing like one. Local businessman, Nick Carlisle from the Haddenham Motorist Centre, has sponsored kit for all the Thame Girls teams.”

    Mr Mansfield also thanked Trevor Grace and Graham Caulfield for their training support throughout the season, as well as all the parents who supported the team through wind and rain.

    ?I hope they can find more ladies to re-form the Thame Ladies Team again,? he said. ?If there are any young women 16 or older in the Thame area and surrounding villages, can they please ring me on 01844-261311 and we?ll see if we can get a young Thame Ladies side together again.?

    And if younger girls in the Thame area want to play football in the Oxfordshire Girls League, please also ring Derek Mansfield for details. Thame does have more promising future ladies players coming up through the ranks. Last year?s Thame Girls Under-14 side won Division Two in the Oxfordshire Girls Football League.

    You never know – if these girls are shown the proper amount of support and encouragement, Thame could provide the bulk of a winning England Ladies team one day in future.

  • Boris To Open Thame To Oxford Cycle Route

    RECENT works alongside the A418 between Thame and the Shabbington Turn, by Oxfordshire County Council, has completed National Cycle Route 57 between Oxford and Thame.
    The route will shortly be fully signed, and the official opening, on Friday June 23, which is during National Bike Week, will be carried out by keen cyclist, Boris Johnson MP.
    To celebrate the event, there will be a supporters’ Ride from Oxford to Thame, beginning at the Tourist Information Centre, Broad Street, Oxford at 11.15am, ready to depart at 11.30 am.
    There will will be a stop in Wheatley for lunch between 12.30 and 1.30pm, and the aim is to arrive in Thame by 2.30 pm.
    Anyone is welcome to join the ride for as much or as little of the ride as they like, as long as they notify the organisers in advance, who will supply further details of the route if necessary.
    The route between Oxford and Thame is approximately 14 miles, on small lanes.

    Please notify Jo Hamilton, Office Manager, Sustrans, c/o Ethical Property Company, 9 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HH / Phone: 01865 205 230 / Fax: 01865 201 301 or: Email: jo.hamilton@sustrans.org.uk by Monday, June 12.

  • Thame Celebration of Volunteering

    A day-long celebration is to take place to mark the amazing contribution to our community made by thousands of people who give their voluntary time. People who volunteer in charity shops, or campaign for change, or care about the environment, or give advice and support, or help the disabled; there are so many of them, and we want to say ‘Thank You’ to them.

    The event, on Saturday,June 3, at Thame Town Hall, will include the following:

    ? At 10am, the doors open; many organisations will be presenting their work on stalls in the Council Chamber.
    ? At 11am, Thame?s Volunteer Point will be launched. The Volunteer Point brings together people seeking volunteering opportunities and organisations needing volunteers. The Point will be in the One Stop Shop in the Town Hall and Keith Slater, Chair of the organisers, 21st Century Thame Partnership, will declare it open.
    ? At 12pm, the Town Mayor, accompanied by Keith Slater, will present certificates to volunteers nominated by their organisations.
    ? Throughout the day, Lord Williams Lower School will entertain with drama scenes.
    ? A WI Coffee shop will be open all day offering light refreshments.

    Don?t miss this opportunity to say a big Thank You to all those who give their voluntary time to ensure our community is a caring, better, and happier place.

  • Special Film Night For Gadget

    THAME Cinema 4 All are planning a very special film night and raffle to raise funds for Martin Gadd, the popular ex Lord Williams’s student who broke his neck recently in a fall.
    On Friday, June 16, Thame Cinema will be showing ?The March of the Penguins?(U).
    Gadget, as Martin is known to his friends, is in the Spinal Injuries Unit in Stoke Mandeville hospital where he is having intensive physiotherapy to help him learn how to manage his disabilities and to assist him towards independent living.
    His friends and family are supporting him through fundraising to help pay for the enormous expense that is involved in Martin moving from hospital to his parents? home, which needs extensive modifications for disabled access. He then intends to return to University to continue his degree course in Sports Studies

    As part of the special film night there will be a fantastic raffle where EVERYONE?S A WINNER. Thame businesses have been incredibly generous in offering prizes, including a meal for two worth

  • Computers To Africa

    A THAME business has sent its first shipment of recycled computers to an Africa charity.
    Local computer support company, SoundByte Response, this week made their first shipment of donated computers to ComputerAid International ? a charity supporting schools and organisations in the third world.
    Since March, Soundbyte have been acting as a collection point for donated computers and peripherals ? hardware that is obsolete here in the UK but much needed by third world schools.
    Soundbyte MD, Simon Gray, said the company had been surprised by the level of response to the first appeal. ?We?d expected donations to dry up after the first few weeks, but the news that we?re doing this seems to have spread?
    As ComputerAid themselves stress, not all equipment is suitable.
    ?We are currently able to make use of any Pentium III or IV machines and any related peripheral equipment. Importantly we also need your mice, keyboards, modems, cables and power leads, memory and other peripheral parts.?

    Soundbyte are also accepting monitors, as long as they are working and are not larger than 17? but make a nominal charge for testing and shipping. Soundbyte can also clean all the existing data from your machine prior to donation.

    If you have equipment to donate then you can bring it to Soundbyte?s computer clinic at Avon House, 82 Wellington Street, Thame during office hours or call 01844 216981 for more information.

  • Learning For Life

    PUPILS at Barley Hill school having been learning about making healthy choices in their lives, around diet, alcohol and drugs, with the help of a puppet called Harold, and a manekin called Tam.
    TAM stands for Transparent Anotomical Manekin, whose vital organs light up at the touch of a button.
    The Life Learning mobile classroom is a charity supported by the Thame Rotary Club and Thame Town Council, and both Des Wright from Thame Rotary and the Thame Mayor, Cllr David Laver, were at Barley Hill school on Friday to meet the children and ‘Harold’.
    The Life Classroom has visited all the Thame Primary schools and supports their work on teaching children about the pressures and choices they will face as they grow up, with presentations and lessons at different stages of their school life.

  • Town Council To Support Bill – Despite Boris

    THAME Town Council will support a proposed Bill to tackle so-called ‘Ghost town’ Britain, even though the town’s MP, Boris Johnson refuses to sign the parliamentary resolution Early Day Motion 641.
    The council agreed back in October to support the Sustainable Communities Bill, which will be included in a ballot later in the year, and wrote to Boris asking him to support it.
    In a reply to the council, Boris said: “I support genuine local government and believe in the real decentralisation of power to local authorities.”
    He further stated that he believed that local authorities are already “over-stretched and under-resourced” and that he did not believe that “further regulatory burden for them is the most effective way of building sustainable communities.”

    The lobby group, Local Works, who now have over 260 MPs supporting the Bill, has written to the town council asking it to try to persuade its local MP.

    To find out all about The Sustainable Communities Bill, what is means and who Local Works are, see Link

    Go to ThameNews.Net Forum and give YOUR views on the future of town centres and what can be done to protect to economic vitality and the environment of a town. Forum

  • ?Silly? Haddenham In For A Few Surprises

    TWO men hanged for murder on the basis of dodgy evidence that would not convince even the most credulous of television policemen;
    an investigation into the sometimes murky past life of Haddenham by one of those policemen; a probe into the finances of the former mistress of one of England?s greatest painters ? and some guesses at how the place came to be known as ?Silly? Haddenham.
    Those are just a few of the surprises in store for the residents of Buckinghamshire?s largest village, in the first of a new series of booklets of local history to be published on Monday (May 22), by the the Haddenham Museum Trust.
    Called ?The Haddenham Chronicles?, and priced at