Author: Sonja Francis

FOLLOWING reports in local and national press, and TV news coverage about the closure of Thame’s Tourist Information
Centre, the mayor of Thame, Cllr David Laver, has issued a statement.
The statement reads:”The recent debate about the closure of Thame?s Tourist Information Centre (TIC) seems to be generating more heat than light. The TIC has over the years provided a valuable service to the town. South Oxfordshire District Council, for reasons which have been aired, has decided that it can no longer fund the centre.

“Over a long period, we as councillors have seen a benefit in combining all the information sources in Thame at the One Stop Shop. The present site in the Town Hall is limited for space. However, the Council has decided to set up a Tourist Information Point to provide local information services that the TIC used to provide. For this we will receive no additional funding.

“I recently picked up a tourist leaflet for Oxfordshire provided by the District Councils which gave the address for Tourist Information at the Town Hall. Someone seems to have anticipated this move.

“We do not feel that at present we have the resources to provide all of those services including Ticket Sales, but we will keep this under review. In the short term, it may be possible for Thame Players and others to set up a desk in the Town Hall manned by volunteers to sell tickets.

“Please be assured that Town Councillors would like to offer what assistance we can to all of the organisations within the town”.

NB Thame retailer, Keith Slater, has offered to act as a ticket agency for local entertainment groups from his shop, Essence, in Buttermarket Thame.

EMERGENCY planners in Oxfordshire will call on the expertise of the Women?s Institute to help care for people affected by a major incident in the county.
The WI has been added to the list of organisations who will respond to an incident, along with the emergency services, local councils and many other organisations.

John Kelly, Oxfordshire County Council?s Emergency Planning Officer, said: “We are pleased that the WI network is to offer its expertise and augment the work of the organisations who are already signed up to help in an emergency.
“In the present security climate and with the threat of severe weather, numbers of volunteers throughout the communities of Oxfordshire will help the responding agencies. We hope to use WI volunteers in our rest centres and in their own communities during any severe weather incidents as well as for responding to other major incidents.”

POLICE in Thame have reported a relatively trouble-free Christmas and New Year, despite fears that extended opening times for pubs and other premises licensed to sell alcohol, would increase drunkeness and criminality.
Inspector Stuart Dunbar, from Thame Police Station, told ThameNews.Net: “After a slight increase in minor disorder during late November/early December, I tasked officers for high visibilty patrols in the town centre and we visited all the main licensed premises to see what their arrangements were for Christmas and the New Year.
“Despite an increase in the number of people about over Christmas and New Year, their were no arrests. We had only one minor alternation between two people who knew each other and that was it.
“I would like to thank landlords in the town for behaving so responsibly and contributing to what was a pleasant surprise for us!”

OXFORDSHIRE County Council has stepped in to save a successful child accident prevention scheme under threat because of lack of funding.

The Injury Minimisation Programme for Schools (IMPS) is run by the John Radcliffe Hospital and is delivered to 10-year-olds in Oxfordshire schools. But the programme, currently funded through a Charitable Trust, was facing problems securing funding in Oxfordshire for next year.

Now the council has made