Author: Sonja Francis

THAME resident Roger Ferrari will be taking part in the London Marathon on April 24, in aid of the British Lung Foundation as part of ‘Team Breathe’ for the charity, and is looking for community support and awareness in Thame.

Roger explained: “Lung diseases affect more than 12 million people in the UK and the British Lung Foundation have spent over £24m in research to combat lung disease and campaign of its prevention.

“Despite having never run a marathon before, I’m looking to raise £1,800 for the British Lung Foundation and hoping that the Thame community, including local businesses and organisations, will help with donations as well as host for fundraising events. ”

Roger has a fundraising website HERE and is training hard around the local area. For more details, you can contact him at roger.v.ferrari@gmail.com or call: 07864607148.

DESPITE a mass protest outside county hall this afternoon, against £69m of cuts from the County Council’s budget, as well as impassioned speeches from several members of the public inside the building and four addresses from County Councillors, at the end of an hour-long discussion, OCC’s Cabinet voted unanimously to recommend the proposed budget to the full council on February 16.

The proposed budget cuts include slashing bus subsides and closing Childrens’ Centres throughout the county, expected to include Thame’s Red Kite Centre.

During the meeting, placards were waved and there were cheers and applause after every speaker against the cuts that would affect those they viewed as vulnerable. There were several calls for Tory Cabinet members to resign.

One of the speakers at this afternoon’s Cabinet meeting was Mary Stiles, speaking in her capacity as Chair of the Advisory Group of the Red Kite Children’s Centre in Thame, and Chinnor and Thame Town Council’s Parish Transport Representative.

Mrs Stiles told the meeting: “The closure of all 44 Children’s (Children’s) Centres and the cutting of all bus subsidies are both very short-sighted proposals and in addition to the catastrophic effect on the users of both services, will lead to a greater cost to the public purse in the future.

“You will know from the consultations the arguments made by many individuals and organisations in favour of keeping our Children’s Centres open and our subsidised bus services running. In three minutes I have time to make only a few points:-

Children’s Centres
– prevention is always better than cure and more cost effective in the long run
– families need local services, not a centre 20+ miles away (the distance from Thame to Didcot)
– outreach from over 20 miles away is costly in both time and money
– providing a service only for referred families is stigmatising and makes those families harder to reach

– in Thame and Chinnor Health Visitor clinics, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy sessions all take place in the Red Kite Children’s Centre. Other premises
would have to be rented for these services if Red Kite closes

Subsidised bus routes

– at present there is a bus service in the Thame area which is used by people living in villages or the edge of town to go into town. Many have contacted me to say what a
lifeline this is and I know from talking to other Parish Transport Representatives, people all over Oxfordshire are saying the same
– if people become isolated, because they cannot go out regularly, all the research shows that particularly elderly and disabled people and parents of young children can   suffer from poor mental health, leading to problems which could have been prevented and costs which could have been avoided
– the local residents who have contacted me have said they don’t need a bus every day – 2 or 3 times a week would suffice. They are not asking for much

“Please think again. Don’t cut completely. Find a way to save our Children’s Centres and subsidised bus services.
It may be a cliche, but true none the less – where there’s a will there’s a way.”

Despite the vote going against the protesters, Mary Stiles is undaunted has said that she intends to get a petition up before  the full council meeting on February 16, to try and save the 120 bus, and that she will be joining in with the Pledge Card Campaign against all Councillors who voted to close Oxfordshire’s Childrens’ Centres.

THE date for Thame Carnival 2016, has been revealed as June 11, and the theme in this special year, will be The Best of British, reflecting the celebrations that will be going on throughout the realm, for Her Magesty’s 90th birthday.

The Carnival parade through the town will begin at 12’clock noon, finishing up at the Southern Road Recreation area with a fete and a A Great British Street Party. The organising committee are hoping for a flypast and Jason Best of Petcare has agreed to run the very popular dog show again this year.

Sue Martin-Downhill, who is once again Chairing the Carnival Committee, said: “We decided on a theme of ‘Best of British’ in order to encompass the main suggestions of Space and Royalty, and of course there’s lots of scope for floats and dresssing up ideas around our history, customs, food, tourist attractions, great British TV series, films, transport, culture etc. So let’s all get behind Carnival 2016 and make this year’s the best ever!”

The main charity to benefit from this year’s Carnival, will be the ‘Megan’s Bench Project’. Some information about the project is at https://www.thame.net/archives/23271

AFTER months of delay, plans for a large supermarket on the edge of Thame are expected to be considered by the district council’s Planning Committee, either in February or March, following new, supportive material submitted by Tesco.

Tesco’s agents are contesting the disputed parts of the supermarket’s plans which Thame Town Council and other opposers say are not in compliance with the Thame Neighbourhood Plan.

In a letter to the Planning Officer dealing with the Tesco application, Tesco’s Agent states: “It is incorrect to suggest that the Neighbourhood Plan prevents out of centre retail proposals. Although the Plan encourages retail proposals in the town centre, it does not, by implication, prevent those in out of centre locations which meet relevant policy tests. Indeed, an attempt to place an embargo on out of centre proposals in the draft Neighbourhood Plan was specifically resisted by the Examiner who confirmed that this would be inconsistent with national policy requirements. Accordingly, this provision was removed from the adopted Plan.”

Ed. (LINK to the Inspector’s report on the draft NP here – page 23 for relevance)

Impact of plan on Thame Town Centre

Tesco also questions the relevance of the Carter Jonas report, Thame Retail Capacity and Impact Study‘commissioned by Thame Town Council, to Tesco’s plans for the DAF site at Howland Road.  The criticism is that the study was commissioned by Thame Town Council to help them come up with a retail strategy for the town, rather than to assess specific retail proposals. Because of this ‘limitation’ – one accepted by the Carter Jonas report, maintains the letter, “any weight to be applied to its findings need to be given very careful consideration when determining the Tesco application. ”

ED. The full Agent’s letter can be read here: LINK  and all the additional material recently submitted to SODC by Tesco, can be read here: LINK

‘Importance of linked shopping trips’

In response to these latest responses on behalf of Tesco, Duncan Nickless, spokesperson for the lobbying group, Thame Centre First, told Thame.Net: “Tesco’s assessment clearly underestimates the impact the proposed store would have on our town centre and has not addressed the impact of lost linked trips on our small and independent stores. Given 80% of us visit other town centre shops and facilities when food shopping in Thame, you can see the huge importance of linked trips to these businesses and the vitality of our High Street.

“It’s also disappointing that a key part of Tesco’s response is to undermine Thame’s Neighbourhood plan which clearly states that new retail development should be located within the town centre.”

The pro Tesco group, TNT (Thame Needs Tesco) stated back in June 2015: “We strongly believe that Thame needs another supermarket that can offer what is currently unavailable, or unaffordable, in the town centre.

‘Thame needs another supermarket’

“Many of us shop in big supermarkets in Aylesbury, Wheatley, Princes Risborough, Oxford or Bicester. But we’d prefer to spend our time and money in Tesco, in Thame. Wanting Tesco does not mean we do not support the town centre shops. We will continue to use them as we do at present if Tesco is built.”

Background: You can read all previous news reports regarding Tesco’s application, HERE

USING CCTV footage to identify and name and shame litter-bugs, and appealing to shopkeepers to do more to keep their frontages free of litter, are just two of the ideas from the town council for tackling littering in the town.

At a meeting of the town council on Tuesday (19/01),Cllr Peter Lambert said that he had noticed that the drivers that race up and down the high street causing a noise nuisance have started dumping rubbish out of their car windows. “These people should be named and shamed,” he said. But he thought a more ‘fun’ approach could be made to primary school pupils, perhaps using a cartoon version of Thame’s Street Cleaner, Alan Tipping (described as ‘a local hero’ by Cllr Linda Emery), to encourage them not to drop litter.

Cllr Lambert went on to say: “This council is paying £14,000 a year for CCTV. We should be able to ask the camera controllers to take stills of offenders which can use to ‘name and shame’.”

Misplaced dog bins

On the subject of dog bins in Elms Park, he told councillors that dog-walkers have to walk across an often muddy field to get to them, and suggested that the bins could be relocated to the entrances and exits of the park.

Messy bin men

Cllr Mike Deacock said that a strongly-worded letter should be sent to the bin lorry contractor about bin collectors who drop rubbish all over the road in some areas and don’t clean it up, causing the litter to then be blown into hedges.

Civic Pride

Cllr Helena Fickling said that there needed to be a public awareness campaign to encourage people not to drop litter in the first place, and to pick it up if they see some. “It should be a matter of civic pride,” she said.

Businesses need to clean up their act

Councillors praised the owner of the Kebab van in the Upper High Street, who goes round every night and picks up every single piece of litter, whether or not it could have come from his customers. But Costa came in for particular criticism. The Mayor, Nichola Dixon, said: “It’s always a mess outside there with cardboard coffee cups and cigarette ends strewn around the pavement area. Businesses need to take more responsibility for keeping their own frontages clean and tidy.”

Make law-breakers clean up

Other ideas put forward by councillors included using the ‘Community Pay Back Scheme’ which uses offenders sentenced to Community Service to clean up litter, and asking the PCSOs to have friendly chats with local people about being litter-aware, as they go on their rounds.

Cllr Bob Austin said that he thought an efficient way of dealing with the problem would be to focus efforts in particular areas, which might then spread the word to other parts of the town.

What next?

All the various suggestion made will be forwarded to the Open Spaces Working Group, which includes members of the public as well as some councillors.