TRAFFIC is reported to be gridlocked along the A418, Aylesbury to Thame road, due to a RTI near The Bottle and Glass, Gibralter.
No further information at the present time. Contact: editor@thame.net if you have any details or an update.
Author: Sonja Francis
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BBC Radio Oxford wants to hear from you!
THE BBC Radio Oxford Big Tour is going back on the road and will be broadcasting stories about Thame everyday from Sunday, October 20.
Street scene of Cornmarket, Thame Serena Martin, at BBC Radio Oxford, explained: “This is your chance to tell the rest of Oxfordshire what is so great about where you live, highlight some fantastic organisations, stories and raise issues or problems which matter to you. I am gathering all the stories we will cover now, while we might not be in Thame every day of the week, we will have stories about the town on air every day.
“So please drop me a line if you think there is something we should be covering – serena.martin@bbc.co.uk
And tune into BBC Radio Oxford, 95.2fm, for a special week from Thame
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Stories We Tell at Thame Cinema 4 All this week
THE film showing this Saturday, October 19, at The Players Theatre, Nelon Street, Thame, will be the Canadian film, Stories We Tell, Directed by Sarah Polley. It is 108 minutes long and is a 12A Certificate
Shot from ‘Stories We Tell’ showing at Thame Cinema 4 All on Saturday “I’m interested in the way we tell stories about our lives, about the fact that the truth about the past is often ephemeral and difficult to pin down,” Canadian actor turned director, Sarah Polley, has said. She lost her mother to cancer when she was 11 years old.
Diane Polley was a once famous television personality, a beautiful, free spirited and vivacious woman who enchanted everyone she met. Then, 23 years after her mother’s death, Sarah decided to make a documentary to piece together the unknowns about her mothers’ life – part memoir, part memorial, and part excavation of her own back story. Sitting down with relatives and friends and encouraging them to talk about what they remembered of Diane, the project soon turned into a far more complex excavation of myth, rumour and the unique intricacies of family relationships and recollections accumulated over years. Using a mixture of her father’s Super-8 footage, faux home movies, interviews and archive material, Polley’s film unfolds like an increasingly compelling mystery, and is her most complex and poignant film to date, sophisticated, beguiling and gripping.
It is an absorbing meditation of the persistence of the past in the present, and the unknowability of other people’s lives. Occasionally there are gems that sneak into the cinemas without fanfare, get universal rave reviews and then disappear before you have a chance to get to the nearest cinema during an inexplicably brief run. This is one of those films, so catch it while you can.
SOURCE: By Catriona Gilmour Hamilton
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Thame Utd ‘on a roll’ after beating Bracknell Town
THAME United are ‘on a roll’, recording their third successive win at Bracknell Town on Saturday (12/10) by defeating their hosts 4-0. The result strengthens Thame’s sixth league position. It was an entertaining game, particularly for United supporters, with the on-form Niall Hodgkins scoring three goals before half time.
After an even start, Thame started to win more of the ball and create chances, going ahead, from a corner, in the 23rd minute. Taylor Collins took the corner kick which fell to Matt Johnson whose shot was parried by the home Keeper. It then fell To Hodgkins whose shot appeared to be cleared off the goal line but, as Thame appealed, the well- placed linesman signalled that the ball had crossed the line and a goal was awarded.
On 30 minutes Lynton Goss ran at goal and was scythed down just inside the penalty area and Hodgkins scored confidently from the penalty spot. With a minute of the half remaining, Collins made a run on the left and hit a good shot which the keeper blocked. But ‘poacher’ Hodgkins was in the right place to collect the rebound and hit the ball home to complete his first half hat trick.
The home side came out ‘fired up’ for the second half but, after a few anxious moments, and a good save from Lee Farrow, Thame again established their control. United’s final goal came on 66 minutes when a Collins free kick was met by the head of Nik Rhodes, but his header was going wide until Simon Lynn got his head to the ball to finish confidently near the far post.
Bracknell went down to 10 men a few minutes later when substitute, Danny Oliphant, unfairly challenged Farrow and was shown a red card. Thame continued to look dangerous and the goal-hungry Collins forced a good save from the home keeper. With the game won, Thame was able to rest tired legs, and substitutes, Tom Sykes, Luke Hurley and Jordan Davis came on for the final few minutes.
Overall it was a good performance from the Thame team who are currently playing some good football. Long may it last.
SOURCE: Contributed by Bob Dixon
Thame United: Farrow, I Pykett, P Pykett, Lynn, Rhodes, Lynch, Connelly, Johnson, Collins (Hurley), Hodgkins (Davis), Goss (Sykes).
United are at home next Saturday (October 19) when they face Ascot United at the ASM Stadium. They are also at home the following Tuesday (October 22) when Wootton Bassett Town are the visitors.
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Red carpet movie premiere for village school hall
A glamourous, champagne reception and ‘movie premiere’ is being planned to raise funds for a village school near Thame, in need of a hall.
A scene from Jadoo, Amit Gupta’s latest film South Oxfordshire-based Feature Film Director, Amit Gupta, will be screening his latest movie ‘Jadoo’ at a red carpet event to raise money for Aston Rowant, his daughter’s primary school’s new hall project. The red-carpet event will be compered by BBC Television Presenter Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes, also an Aston Rowant mum.
Co-starring Madhur Jaffrey, Jadoo is a British-made comedy about two feuding brothers and their curry restaurants in Leicester. The film has just finished its UK general release following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
QUOTE: The Express – “Buoyant and beautifully shot, the picture is a celebration of food and family life that adroitly sidesteps many cultural clichés.”The BBC’s Mark Kermode – “I watched the whole thing with a big smile on my face.”Jadoo’s classification is 12a, running time – 84 minutes. Local celebrities will be invited as well as cast members. There will canapes and a licensed bar. Popcorn and snacks will also be for sale and the organisers are aiming to have some Bollywood style dancers.
Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes explained: “Aston Rowant Primary is a small school in South Oxfordshire with around 85 pupils but it currently doesn’t have a hall. The children can’t do PE if it’s raining and any plays or performances have to be squashed into a classroom. It’s hoped the money raised will be enough to buy a stage and sports equipment for the new school hall due to be built in Spring 2014.“This event has been very kindly supported by the following organisations – The professional screening is by Kandya Ltd and it’s hoped that Waitrose will supply the champagne and popcorn. Chinnor Indian restaurant, Duo Chef, are providing the canapes and Haddenham Carpets are giving us the red carpet. “The event will be held at Kingston Blount Village Hall hall which holds 120 people and tickets will cost £15. This includes a glass of champagne and canapes. Tickets will be available to the wider public in a couple of weeks, once they have been made available to the school for a week. -
‘No illegal workers here’ says restaurant manager
THE Manager of a Thame restaurant, raided by Immigration Enforcement Officers last week, has insisted that the two men arrested were not employees of his.
Shek Basher, the Manager of The Star and Garter in East Street, Thame, told Thame.Net: “These two guys were only visitors here. They had arrived earlier in the week and were staying up stairs.
“The Star and Garter has a very good reputation in the town and I would not want to destroy that by employing illegal people! I am still paying the fine when the restaurant was fined two or three years-ago so of course, so of course I am very careful and do not employ illegal people to work here.”
Related story
The Star and Garter restaurant in Thame -
Thame restaurant raided by immigration enforement officers
A restaurant in Thame is facing a potential fine of up to £20,000 following an operation by Home Office immigration enforcement officers last weekend.
The Star and Garter Pub and restaurant in Thame
Acting on intelligence, officers visited the Star and Garter, in Wellington Street, at 8.15pm on Wednesday, October 2. Individuals were questioned to check if they had the right to be in the UK. Two Bangladeshi men, one, aged 20, was working in breach of his visa conditions, the other, aged 25, having overstayed his visa, were arrested.
The 20-year-old was transferred to immigration detention pending his removal from the country. The other man was placed on immigration bail while his case is progressed. He too faces removal from the country if found to have no leave to remain.
A spokesperson for the London and South Immigration Enforcement area said: “The restaurant was served a notice warning that a civil penalty of up to £10,000 per illegal worker found will be imposed unless proof is provided that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out. This is a potential total of £20,000.”
These arrests in Thame came just a day before the Government published the new Immigration Bill, which carries a number of proposals to clamp down on illegal working and rogue employers. These include potentially doubling the maximum penalty for those using illegal labour to £20,000 and making it easier to enforce unpaid debts in the civil courts.
The Government has said that it is also planning to simplify the right to work checks to make it easier for compliant employers to fulfil their responsibilities.
Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: “Illegal working encourages illegal immigration, undercuts legitimate businesses and is often associated with exploitation. The existing illegal working regime isn’t simple enough; the penalties have remained the same since 2008 and don’t provide a sufficient deterrent; it is also too easy for companies to evade paying them.
“New legislation will increase the penalties for rogue businesses, make it easier to enforce payment, while also making it easier for legitimate businesses to verify individuals’ right to work.”
Employers unsure of the steps they need to take to avoid employing illegal workers can visit http://www.ukba.homeoffice.
gov.uk/business-sponsors/ preventing-illegal-working/ or they can call the Employers Helpline on 0300 123 4699. Anyone with information about suspected immigration abuse can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or visithttp://www.crimestoppers-uk.
org. No one from the restaurant was available to comment this afternoon, but we are expecting a response soon from the management.
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Building bridges in Thame
ONE of Thame’s most ambitious community projects, involving a large number of volunteers, was celebrated on Wednesday (09/10) yesterday, when the Mayor, Peter Lambert, helped to officially unveil a new bridge in the Cuttle Brook Nature Reserve.
Dave Watkins, bridge designer and Town Mayor, Cllr Peter Lambert cutting the ribbon The Mayor congratulated and thanked all the volunteers involved for their ‘magnificent effort’ and particular thanked Dave Watkins who designed the bridge, and even went so far as to built a miniature model that was used when applying for grant funding, to demonstrate what was being proposed.
The design obviously impressed the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE2), who supported the project with funds from Grundon Waste Management. Fiona Danks from TOE2 attended the ribbon cutting ceremony formally opening the bridge, as did a number of Cuttle Brook Volunteers, members of the team that built the first bridge in 1995 and representatives from the town council.
Dave Watkins, who designed the new bridge, payed tribute to the volunteers too saying:“This has been a huge achievement for the volunteers, with hundreds of hours of work going into this project.”
More photos of the new bridge and information about the Cuttle Brook Volunteers can be found on the Cuttle Brook Facebook page.
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Barley Hill school to close for teachers’ strike day
IMAGE courtesy of Barley Hill School. Children from Barley Hill school, with Nick Clegg, when he visited the school. BARLEY Hill primary school, in Thame, will be closed for the day on October 17th, as some staff will be joining the regional strike by teachers’ unions, objecting to proposed changes to their working conditions, times and pensions.
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Thame school to close for teachers’s strike
LORD Williams’s school in Thame, will be closed for the day on October 17, because of a regional strike by members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the NASUWT Teaching Union.
Image courtesy of http://www.lordwilliams.oxon.sch.uk/ Pupils at Lord Williams’s School, in Thame, will have an extra day off next Thursday when some of their teachers join a regional strike
The South East is on of several regions striking on October 17. The others are the North East Government region, Cumbria, London and South West Government regions. The teachers say that they are not happy with proposals to ‘dismantle’ their national pay system, are against attacks on their working conditions – Michael Gove (Education Minister) wants a longer school day and year, and are against new pension proposals which they say will mean them “working for longer, paying more and getting less.”
Michael Gove has been reported as saying: “The problem with industrial action is that parents suffer as their routines are disrupted, they have to get childcare – the poorest lose out most. Children suffer because they lose valuable time with teachers, learning and achieving more. “
The teachers’ unions have published an explanatory leaflet for parents about why they are striking.
The Government’s education policies can be found on the Department For Education’s website
