Author: Sonja Francis

THIS is a Community Message from Thames Valley Police. Rogue Traders ? South Oxfordshire and Vale area; We have received reports of a company offering to do work on driveways and patios in the South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse area. The company is reported to post a card through your door and when asked to do some work they turn up, provide no paperwork, will possibly ask for cash and the work carried out is not of an acceptable standard. When challenged, some of these traders can become very abusive.

The advice from Trading Standards is NOT to deal with cold callers and to be very careful who you ask to carry out any work.

Please be extra vigilant and keep a look out for any elderly or vulnerable neighbours. Report any sightings of suspected rogue traders to the police on the non-emergency number 101 or Trading Standards on 0845 051 0845, option 2. Try to obtain vehicle details, including make/model, registration number and description of occupants if possible.

If you have any information in relation to this message, please call the police on the non-emergency number 101. Alternatively if you have information but wish to remain anonymous, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Please call 999 for crime in progress.

Message Ends.

SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council has welcomed a key change proposed by the Planning Inspector examining its Core Strategy, that Thame should be allowed to take full advantage of the new freedoms presented by the Government?s planning reforms.

Under the Government?s Localism reforms, responsibility for planning is shared between the District Council and those towns and parishes which produce a Neighbourhood Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan allows local residents a greater say in helping shape their communities and gives them greater freedom to decide for example on where additional development should go. Thame has been awarded frontrunner status by the Government, meaning that it is one of the early pioneers in the country in putting together a Neighbourhood Plan.

Thame?s Neighbourhood Plan will itself have an examination, mainly to make sure it is in general conformity with the Core Strategy. After that, once approved by a referendum of the town, the Thame Plan will be adopted by the District Council and form a part of the development plan. Future planning applications will be determined against the provisions both of the District Council?s Core Strategy and the Thame Neighbourhood Plan.

Angie Paterson, Cabinet Member for Planning said ?I am absolutely delighted that we are now seeing the benefits of the Government?s planning reforms coming through to the benefit of local communities. It is also extremely helpful to the District Council as it signals freeing the Council from some of the centrally imposed planning to which we have been subjected until now. In delegating the responsibility for finding sites for the new housing to the community, the Inspector has signalled the way forward. This is a positive step towards new ways of working and helps provide certainty for all as to how planning will work in a more localised and simple way for the future.”

SOURCE: Press release

A rare first edition of Enid Blyton’s The Castle of Adventure, has been sold by the Oxfam Bookshop in Thame, after being found by volunteers at the bottom of a box of donated books.

The 1946 Children’s book was the second in Enid Blyton’s Adventure series and still had on it the original dust cover illustrated by Stuart Tresilian.

The hardback book has been sold for

IT appears that the Planning Inspector who will decide how future housing will be allocated within Thame and the rest of South Oxfordshire, is moving towards allowing the people of Thame to decide for themselves where most of the new homes will go.

The latest draft conclusions by the Inspector, largely dealing with the Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of the draft Core Strategy for future development, are available to be read on South Oxfordshire District Council’s website:LINK

Particularly relevant to Thame, is: INSPECTOR?S DRAFT CONCLUSIONS FOR TESTING THROUGH SA – Topic area 5, in the document ID/34 which states:

“Topic area 5 Thame
5.1 Policy CSTHA2 Reword as follows:- ?New allocations at Thame

The Neighbourhood Plan for Thame will allocate land for 775 new homes on land selected through that process as the most appropriate and sustainable.?

5.2 Paras 11.14 to 11.16 Reword as follows:-

11.14 Provision of additional housing will help to support the town centre?s attraction in relation to nearby centres and maintain Thame?s services and facilities.

The overall strategy is to provide 775 additional houses to 2027 on sites selected by a neighbourhood plan.

11.15 The selected sites will need to have a form and character which meet identified needs and be planned comprehensively in accordance with agreed design
briefs reflecting policies CSQ1-4 and other relevant policies in the Local Development Framework. The developments should avoid building on areas of land
within flood zones 2 and 3, provide safe pedestrian and cycle links to the town centre, and make provision (or provide contributions towards) such necessary supporting infrastructure as is set out in the infrastructure delivery plan.’

“Skeleton reasoning – topic area 5

The proposed allocated site (F) has many favourable sustainability credentials.
However, it is unclear that it has the scope to accommodate 600 new homes together with sensitively planned structural planting on a sufficiently generous scale to avoid excessive damage to the attractive sloping landscape on this side of the town as
appreciated, for example, from the Thame Valley Walk.

“An allocation on this scale has therefore not been shown to be justified.

A number of other potential sites around the town have been found to have their particular advantages and disadvantages and their own supporters and opponents at various times in the evolution of the CS (Core Strategy). Moreover, the post-submission changes to
the CS acknowledge that Thame?s housing growth cannot all be accommodated on one site, and it is evident that there is considerable local support for directing it to a number of different locations.

An important new factor is that the Town Council has recently been awarded frontrunner status in neighbourhood planning and has commenced that process with the assistance of a planning consultancy specialising in master-planning and urban design. This process offers an opportunity to build a community-based approach to the identification of the CS housing provision, together with consideration of the
implications of any school relocation that may be shown to be necessary. The current estimated timescale for this work may be over-optimistic and, to judge by the
evolution of the CS proposals for Thame, the process will not necessarily be straightforward or without considerable contention. However, the process has already commenced and has the potentia to result in a full set of allocations in a shorter timescale than would be required if the Site Allocations DPD were dealing with the balance of the outstanding 175 sites.

“It would be premature and unsound to make a
substantial allocation at site F merely because the Council is ?on the cusp? of the 5-year land supply. This change would therefore make theCS justified and effective in its approach to allocations in Thame.”

SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council has reacted with dismay to a key change to its Core Strategy proposed by a Government appointed planning inspector.

The Core Strategy sets out how many new homes should be built and jobs created in South Oxfordshire by 2027. For the towns of Didcot, Thame and Wallingford it also identifies the sites for development.

The core strategy has been developed over a four-year period with extensive community involvement and technical assessments of the proposed sites.

Recently the core strategy underwent a public examination where the planning inspector heard evidence from local councils, residents and other interested groups and individuals.

The change proposed which causes concern to the council is set out in the inspector?s statement in which he advises that homes at Wallingford should be built to the south, Site E at Winterbrook, rather than to the west, Site B toward Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, the option favoured by the council.

In contrast, the inspector has recognised the importance of community views as far as Thame is concerned. He states that the housing location for Thame should be decided through the new neighbourhood planning process which will involve the town council and local community.

Councillor Angie Paterson, Cabinet member for planning, said: ?It is very difficult to understand how the inspector can say that decisions can be made locally for Thame but not Wallingford.

?I welcome the inspector?s proposal to embrace localism and delegate to Thame the responsibility for finding sites for the new housing and we will be pleased to work closely with local residents and the town council on plans for housing in their area.

?However, I have been taken aback at the inspector?s intention to change sites at Wallingford, especially as his direction goes against local opinion and the views of the town council and other key stakeholders.

“Decisions on housing sites should be made locally by people elected by their communities. This is exactly why we now have the Localism Act.?

Notes to editors:

The correspondence from the Inspector dated 30 November 2011 can be found at: http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/services-and-advice/planning-and-building/planning-policy/core-strategy/core-strategy-examination

The Government appointed Planning Inspector, who has been examining the council?s proposed Core Strategy, has produced some draft conclusions following the hearings held at the beginning of November. These are not his final conclusions, which will be contained in a report that is not expected until next spring. Nonetheless, these draft conclusions provide a strong indication of the Inspector?s likely findings on some key areas.

The principal changes he is proposing are:

the allocation of land to the south of Wallingford for a new greenfield neighbourhood of 555 homes – instead of allocating land to the west of Wallingford, as the council had proposed, and;

for the allocation of land for 775 homes at Thame to be determined through the emerging Neighbourhood Plan – instead of the allocation of land to the north west of Thame for a new greenfield neighbourhood of 600 homes and the allocation of 175 homes through the Thame Neighbourhood Plan.
He has also re-affirmed that he does not consider there to be sufficient grounds to change the green belt boundary at Wheatley.

The council is pleased to note:

he does not support those who had called for our Core Strategy to include an allocation for 4,000 homes in the green belt on the south side of Oxford, within our district

he supports our approach to how many homes to allocate to Henley, on sites to be identified through the Site Allocations Development Plan Document

he appears ready to back our proposals to help transform Didcot and to support the success of the Science Vale UK area, through the development of a new greenfield neighbourhood to the north east of Didcot and the development of the Orchard Centre Phase 2.
The next stage is for the council to carry out a sustainability appraisal1 of the Inspector?s draft proposed further changes, for submission to the Inspector. The Inspector will then consider the results of the appraisal before deciding whether to ask the council to advertise the proposed further changes for comment. Before they can be advertised these changes would need to be reported to South Oxfordshire?s Cabinet and Full Council. These meetings are likely to take place in January. The subsequent advertising of the changes will give all with an interest in the core strategy an opportunity to submit comments. These comments will be passed to the Inspector for him to take into account before making his final report.

[1] The sustainability appraisal will ensure that the full environmental, social and economic impacts of the changes are properly considered

SOURCE: Press release 30/11/11