THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following thefts from vehicles in South Oxfordshire.
Offender breaking into a parked car (for illustrative purposes only)
Between Tuesday (20/10) and today (22/10), offenders have broken into a number of work vehicles whilst parked overnight in hotel car parks, including in Wheatley and Didcot.
Offenders have forced door locks and pushed vehicles forward to gain to the rear of the vehicle or smashed a side window to gain entry.
Power tools, laptop computers and other electronic equipment were stolen.
Commercial vehicle owners are advised to remove tools and valuable items from their vehicles when parked up at night and if possible to try to park in well lit areas where there is good CCTV coverage. Property mark your items and list any serial numbers is also the advise.
To obtain vehicle crime prevention and property marking advice please click on the link below which will take you to the Thames Valley Police website: LINK HERE
If you have any information relating to this message, please call PC Matt Agar at Didcot police station via the 24 hour non-emergency telephone number 101.
THE company behind The Thatch and The James Figg in Thame, has again been recognised as one of the leading people businesses in its industry by winning a Best Employers in Hospitality Award for the fifth year running.
Frazer Sutherland
Peach Pubs was named the winner in the Pubs & Bars Category 2015 at the Best Employers in Hospitality Awards 2015, held in London on Monday last week, October 12, marking five consecutive years of taking the trophy home.
Organised by the Caterer.com, the annual awards single out the businesses in the UK hospitality industry that do the most to train, motivate and develop their people. What is special about the awards is that the winners are selected solely on the views of the people who work there, showing which businesses really go the extra mile to put their people first.
“We have been named one of the best places to work in our business, for the fifth year running,” said Frazer Sutherland from Peach, the company which runs The Thatch and The James Figg. “This is a really big thing to win in our industry and winning once is fantastic but to be singled out for praise five years on the trot is a truly amazing achievement. We run wonderful pubs and they’re full of brilliant people. We know that people are central to our success and set great store by looking after them and giving everyone great training so they stay and grow with us. I’m really proud of what we’ve all worked so hard to create, and being recognised as one of the leading people businesses is the highest praise we could wish for,” he added.
One of the areas covered by the awards is how effectively businesses train their people to give them the skills they need to do their job really well and progress in their careers, and this is an area where Peach scored particularly highly in, as Frazer explained.
“A contributing factor to our continued success in the awards is undoubtedly the great training we give our teams, and how dedicated we are to our training programmes,” he says. “We develop a lot of our own training, for instance with Peach Pathway programmes which help the people who work behind our bars or cook in our kitchens develop from when they first start out, to becoming a partner in our business. We now have six partners who have done just this, using our training to become stake-holders in the company and win awards of their own.
“Our people also learn great skills when they work with us. We believe great food and service comes from having great hosts in our pubs and great cooks in our kitchens, so we invest a lot of time and resources into making our people skilled. If that appeals to you, and you want to be part of an award-winning team, come and talk to us today as we’re looking for more great people to help us expand,” he added.
To find out more about working at Peach and benefiting from the training and career opportunities available, contact nat.cash@peachpubs.com. More information about Peach can be found on www.peachpubs.com.
The Thatch is at 29-30 Lower High Street, Thame, Oxon, OX9 2AA. Tel: 01844
214340. thatch@peachpubs.com www.thethatchthame.co.uk
The James Figg is at 21 Cornmarket, Thame, Oxon, OX9 2BL. Tel: 01844 260
166. info@thejamesfiggthame.co.uk www.thejamesfiggthame.co.uk
IN partnership with Thame Town Council and Thame Lions Club, Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC) is bringing back its Festive Fun Run – a 3k Santa saunter, reindeer run or jingle bell jog, for the second year, in the build-up to Christmas for all the family, setting off from Thame Town Hall on Sunday, December 6, at 10am.
The event will bring some extra Christmas cheer to the town, two days after the Thame Christmas Event and lights switch on in the town centre on Friday, December 4, enticing entrants of all ages and ability to sign up to take part. Pushchairs are also welcome on this buggy-friendly route, which will see Santa’s dashing through the High Street at the start, heading towards the Phoenix Trail to complete the challenge.
“We’re very proud to be working with Thame Town Council and Thame Lions Club again for our festive fun run in the run-up to Christmas,” said FNHC’S Karen Shardlow. “Having recently opened our new charity shop on Cornmarket, we’ve had some fantastic support from the local community, so we’re really hoping to make this year’s event bigger and better and are looking forward to seeing everyone’s costumes on the day.”
To register for this year’s Festive Fun Run, visit www.fnhospice.org.uk and click on ‘Festive Fun Run’ on the homepage. Entry costs £10 per adult, £7.50 per child and Under 2s go FREE. Registration price includes event entry, refreshments, a FREE Santa hat and medal on completion of the fun run challenge.
FNHC will also be hosting a ‘Sign-Up’ stall at Thame Market on Tuesday, November 10, for participants to register for the event in person.
Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity has been helping to provide palliative care in the area since 1989 and needs to raise over £650,000 each year towards in-patient hospice care services at Florence Nightingale Hospice, Stoke Mandeville, as well as home-based services, which include: Nightingale 24/7 Care, Florrie’s Children’s Team and specialist community nurses.
A Thame rugby player has been hailed as a hero, after his girl friend spotted a woman about to jump from a motorway bridge.
Hero, Michael Owen
Chinnor Rugby Club ‘s First Team player, Michael Owen’s girlfriend Jemma Zuleika Richards, described on social media what happened as they were driving home after visiting his parents in Wales: “Just spotted a girl about to throw herself off a bridge on the M4 into the oncoming traffic so told Michael to pull over. We ran through all the cars to get to her and he spent an hour holding onto her until the fire engines could lift her down! Such an unbelievably proud girlfriend right now ❤ He literally saved her life, and she was so grateful, she gave us massive hugs saying thank you and she is in good hands now.. ”
Talking to the South Wales Evening Post about the ordeal, Michael said: “”I got to her and started talking to her. She was clearly very upset, so I just talked about anything I could think of with her. She seemed to like my accent, so we talked about Wales a lot. It seemed to calm her down.
“I had to hold onto her to make sure she didn’t slip while we waited for a fire engine with a ladder to come and help her down. We waited a good hour, because she was too frightened to go down a ladder, so they needed to bring out a second engine.
Broken hand
“The police closed off the road and parked a lorry underneath the bridge, just in case she fell off. All the while, I kept holding on to her and reassuring her. I’ve got a broken hand from playing rugby at the moment, so it really hurt. But it was worth it in the end, because she was very grateful to us that we stayed with her and helped her through it.”
Today, a proud Michael has said that he and Jemma are focusing on the future, as Gemma began climbing her personal ladder towards her goal of becoming a solicitor, with Lightfoots in Thame
A planning application for 20 retirement homes to build on what is currently Thame Service Station, at 67-68 Park Street, has been recommended for approval by Thame Town Council.
However, the council’s approval was subject to the following conditions:
a) Satisfactory assurance regarding the viability of affordable housing.
b) Satisfactory assurance that the existing business will relocate to a new site in Thame, as the loss of employment land with no firm assurance that the business would remain in the Town was a concern.
FENCERS from Thame Duellists picked up an impressive haul of five medals at this year’s Buck’s Berks & Oxon foil championships in Langley last Sunday, October 18.
In the Boys’ Under 12 category, Hal Seed, who now trains with the England Fencing youth development training programme fenced to a comfortable win, with Isaac Salle taking bronze in his first year in the Under 12 category, having won the Under 10s last year. The Mens’ event was won by Martin Carter, one of Thame’s coaches, with Daniel Kovacs taking bronze in his first senior event.
(L-R) India George, Hal Seed, Isaac Salle, Daniel Kovacs and Martin Carter
But the most impressive win came from Thame and Oxford fencer India George in the girls’ Under 12s. Down 2-4 after the first period of the fight and suffering from cramp in her right foot, India refocussed and fought through the pain, coming back to take the score to 9-9 at the end of the third period. That meant a sudden death extra minute of fencing. Still suffering from cramp and under pressure, she kept her composure to score the final hit and take the fight and the gold 10-9.
Thame coach James Kingston said: “I’m delighted for all our medallists, and particularly for India. She really earned that win. She concentrated so hard on her technique even when she suffering from cramp. She can be very proud.”
FRAUDSTERS have been phoning victims telling them that they have been placed in the wrong council tax bracket for a number of years and are entitled to a rebate. They normally say that this rebate should be worth about £7,000. Once the victim is convinced, the fraudster tells them that in order to receive the rebate they will need to pay an administration fee in advance. The payment they ask for varies between £60–£350. The victim provides the details and makes the payment, but then is no longer able to make contact with the person they spoke to on the phone. When they phone their council about the rebate and the fact that they are in the wrong tax bracket, the council will confirm that they know nothing about it and that they have been contacted by fraudsters.
The fraudsters have mainly been targeting both male and female victims who are aged 60 and over and live in the Sussex area, but it is likely that the fraudsters will also start to target victims in other areas.
Protect Yourself
Never respond to unsolicited phone calls.
Your local council won’t ever phone out-of-the-blue to discuss a council tax rebate. If you receive a call of this nature, put the phone down straight away.
No legitimate organisation will ask you to pay an advanced fee in order to receive money, so never give them your card details.
If you think you have been a victim of fraud, hang up the phone and wait five minutes to clear the line as fraudsters sometimes keep the line open. Then call your bank or card issuer to report the fraud. Where it is possible use a different phone line to make the phone call.
If you believe that you have been a victim of fraud you can report it online http://www.actionfraud or by telephone 0300 123 2040.
ARE you 11-16? GLL Better Leisure Centres, which includes Thame Leisure Centre, are offering an eight-week coached sports programme, with a variety of sports being offered in centres at just £2 per session, or £16 for the whole eight-week course, starting from Saturday, October 17, 2015.
In addition, GLL are also offering 14-25 year-olds a six-week Sportivate membership in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse to support young peope in getting more active and acheving a healthier lifestyle.
Sportivate is a Sport England funded project to engage more young people into sport and activity and the leisure centres are joining forces with the project to encourage more people to improve their health and engage in physical activity.
The Gym, Pool and Group Exercise Classes Membership costs £20 and entitles you to eight visits to the gym, pool and group exercise classes within a six-week period. After eight visits have been redeemed, you will be entitled to a discounted membership. Any additional visits within the six week period will be priced at £2 per activity.
THAME museum currently lacks enough storage and display space and members of the Museum Trust are concerned that the current frontage limits the street presence of the building.
So, after some preliminary investigations and some design sketches, the trust is looking for funding of around £180,000 – £250,000 from a number of sources to carryout the work. Thame Town Council, which leases the old Court House building to the Museum Trust, has agreed to give the trust £5,000 towards professional advise and design work to enable it to make a planning application.
A squad of over 40 swimmers from Thame Swimming Club put in some fantastic swimming over the weekend (Oct 17/18), celebrating the last ever gala at the old Wycombe 50m pool. Under the guidance of Head Coach Ian Blyth, and Coach Karen Powell, the swimmers rose to the occasion achieving some well-deserved personal bests, speeding tickets, medals and all-round great swimming.
The team came second in the Visiting Clubs award, missing out to Maxwell, and Thame’s Lauren Gibbs came joint second in the Top Girl award, winning six Gold medals and a Speeding Ticket.
Among the other Medal and Speeding Ticket winners were Dominic Loughran, who at 9 years-old and in only his second gala ever, came away with a Speeding Ticket and two Gold Medals, and Douglas Birchall gained 6 out of 6 Speeding Tickets, awesome swimming Douglas.
Helen Williams, spokesperson for Thame Swimming Club, said: ” Thanks as ever to all the officials who gave up their time over the weekend to support this gala –without you there would be no galas: Brian Pridmore, Paul Williams, Wendy Randall, Emma Camp, Emma Day, Matt Randall and Sue Hewett.”
