HADDENHAM in Transition Meeting- the next meeting is this Wednsday, the 22nd June, at 8pm at the Rose & Thistle Pub in Haddenham.
On the agenda for discussion are:
Thermal Imaging, Apple pressing / Handmade in Haddenham,
Local Windpower, Photovoltaic Meeting
6. Other Upcoming events
7. Treasurer?s report
8. AOB
9. Date of next meeting
THAME FIRST, the Thame business group, is re-launching as Thame4Business, and to celebrate is holding a FREE event for local retailers and business to bring the whole family to, on Sunday, June 26, at Chinnor Rugby Club.
The Thame Business Family Fun Day begins at 11.45 am with a welcome drink and after a short presentation by the Chair of 21st Century Thame, Cat Young, everyone is invited to join in the family fun with pony rides, a climbing wall, full-size bouncy castle for all ages, one-touch rugby fun, a mobile squash wall, obstacle races and lots, lots more, and get to know other business people in an informal and relaxed atmosphere. There will be live music throughout the event, FREE BBQ and a licenced bar.
This is a chance to find out what Thame First, the Economic Working Group of 21st Century Thame, has been doing to promote the town and its businesses, to learn about the group?s plans to give Thame businesses a more effective voice and to offer mutual support to each other.
Contact: editor@thame.net for more information and to register for the event, or call: 07792487030
THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses after a woman was robbed near her car in Thame on Friday (17/6).
At 12.20pm, the 49-year-old woman was standing by her Volvo, which was parked in Elms Road near an alleyway which runs past the recreation ground. She was rearranging her laptop in the passenger seat when she was pushed aside and the offender took her laptop in its case and ran off.
The offender, believed to be a man, is described as being 5ft 10in with a medium build and he was wearing faded blue jeans and a grey hooded top with the hood up.
Det Con Wojciech Spyt said: ?This robbery happened in the middle of the day and while there was nobody around in Elms Road, someone may have seen the offender running past the recreation ground or past the school in Park Street, carrying a laptop case.?
Anyone with information is asked to contact Det Con Spyt via the Thames Valley Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505.
LAST week local housebuilder, David Wilson Homes, swapped hard hats for cricket bats to become official kit sponsors for Thame Town Cricket Club.
The company presented the club with a new kit last ahead of their first team game against Gerrards Cross which saw the club take victory over their close rivals.
Paul Moran, Sales Director for David Wilson Homes Southern commented: ?The cricket team is an important part of the local community in Thame and we are glad to show our support with this sponsorship. The club is just a stones throw from our Windmill Place development so it seemed fitting to lend our support by providing the new kit. I understand the team?s season has got off to a good start and I hope that this can continue throughout the summer.?
Angus Lachlan, Club Chairman for Thame Town Cricket Club commented: ?As well as our new kit, the club are also delighted with the new training nets we?ve obtained thanks to David Wilson Homes sponsorship. The support means that now our club can really develop from a small country club to a local club with a real professional attitude. The new kit has really boosted moral and we now have great team spirit building amongst all players in all teams.?
The club currently has over 200 members aged between eight and 60. With a number of teams in various local leagues, the club are always on the look out for new recruits for both junior and senior teams. To find out more please visit: LINK
As part of a joint project with Wates Developments and David Wilson Homes, Windmill Place is a stylish development which offers an excellent selection of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes, in the thriving historic market town of Thame, Oxfordshire. Prices at Windmill Place range from
OPPOSITION to plans for a supermarket on the cattle market site in North Street, Thame, appears to be growing, with over 500 people now signed up to the Facebook cause: Stop Sainsbury?s building a superstore at Thame?s Cattle Market.
Several more local people have signed petitions at various shops in Thame whilst others have signed an online petition. The petition also calls for any redevelopment of the Cattle Market site to include facilities for the local community, with assembly and leisure uses.
In a statement, the Cattlemarket Action Group (CAG) says: “Because the land is already owned by South Oxfordshire District Council there is a golden
opportunity for a mixed used development of this kind to be built on the site when the cattle market moves out to the edge of town.
“The Cattle market Action Group (CMAG) is encouraging Thame Town Council to include this in the town plan, which will be developed over the next few months
in preparation for the Localism Bill. CMAG continue to communicate with all parties over the plans for this important town centre site.”
PHOTO; courtesy of Thame Farmers Mart
THE pupils and teachers at John Hampden Primary school in Thame are still glowing today after the Cup for the best Carnival entry was presented to them by Reality TV star, Peter Andre on Saturday.
This is the third year in a row that John Hampden School has won the Cup, setting the standard for others to follow.
Despite rain showers, hundreds of people lined the streets to see the carnival procession pass though the town centre, lead by a Samba band, creating a truly Mardi Gras atmosphere.
As well as live bands, funfair amusements, a martial arts display, a gymnastics display, face painting, bars and stilt walkers, the Tug-of-War proved to be a great crowd puller, with Racquets fitness centre losing to a team of school girls in the final!
Photo: Peter Andre in wig; Headteacher of John Hampden School, Alan Haigh, pupil with cup and the Mayor of Thame, David Bretherton.
PHOTO: Courtesey of Lauren Price; Receiving the cup on behalf of the pupils of John Hampden School with the Head, Alan Haigh, are Niamh Twyford and Joshua Walker.
THE bring and buy bike sale at the recent Swap Shop run by 21st Century Thame, proved a great success with dozens of unwanted bikes changing hands.
Here the Mayor of Thame, David Bretherton, is helping out after launching the new Cycle rides around Thame leaflet.
FOLLOWING the huge success of last year?s Thame Food Festival which saw record attendance in beautiful September sunshine, plans for this year’s, the fourth food festival are gathering pace.
Thame Food Festival is a wonderful showcase for the passion of local artisan food and drink producers and retailers in the area. It is a celebration of everything that is right with food and is a great, bustling, fun filled, free, family day out in the centre of our historic South Oxfordshire market town.
?We are so excited about this year?s Thame Food Festival,? said South Oxfordshire Market Town Co-ordinator Alison Isherwood, who has worked tirelessly to organize this year?s Festival with a close band of helpers. ?Stallholder response has been phenomenal, with virtually everybody from last year re-booking and many new exhibitors including The Chiltern Brewery, Paul Bellchambers ?The Late Chef?, Caramba! Olive Oil and Chiltern Natural Foods. The stallholder?s area has been greatly extended this year to accommodate the increase of contributors wanting to take part.
“We are delighted to announce the involvement of top chef Raymond Blanc and his team from Le Manoir aux Quat?Saisons, including Mark Peregrine who will be preparing a three course meal for two in 40 minutes and hopefully be involved in a competitive cook-off. Details to follow at a later date.
Le Manoir aux Quat?Saisons will be offering the prize of a voucher at The Raymond Blanc Cookery School worth
DEAR EDITOR, I read the article on Lord Williams?s School, in last Friday?s Gazette, with interest. Though short of detail, it laid out the understandable ambitions of one, very important, stakeholder in Thame.
The implications for the town as a whole, however, caused me some concern that public knowledge of the latest possibilities for the Core Strategy might be lacking. Apart from some recent references to the need to increase the number of houses specified in Site F, I am not aware of any references to any ultimate figure for house building.
As I understand it, and purely from memory, the following could be the situation:
Site F accounted for 560 houses. The school proposals could account for 250+ with about 200 houses recently built, being built or about to be built already. (I obtained the latter figure from a recent local election leaflet.) The total amounts to about 1000 houses – a potential increase in the population of 25%? This together with the potential, purely commercial, Sainsbury’s proposals would transform the town utterly. It would be a milestone along the road of Thame ceasing to be a market town. The infrastructure investment implications would be enormous for schools, doctors, transport etc.
To take Lord Williams?s School as an example, and unless demographic trends intervene, it could imply an increase in size towards 3000 pupils a figure so big that it might necessitate a split back into 2 schools- a return to the current 2 sites! Alternatively, numbers could be restricted by reducing intake from the surrounding, Buckinghamshire, villages. The latter would necessitate Buckinghamshire having to build a new secondary school. This would be a denial of Thame?s role as a market town at the centre of a hinterland that naturally pays scant regard to administrative boundaries and, also, of current parental expectations that appreciate a fully comprehensive school environment.
I do not raise these issues to be alarmist but to enquire whether enough public discussion has taken place. The Inspector is about to begin work. We need to know the parameters of what could happen.
A few questions:
What could be the figure for the houses Thame is expected to provide?
Would this figure be proportionate to Thame’s size in comparison to South Oxfordshire as a whole?
What are the potential infrastructure implications and are they fundable?
The people of Thame need a further opportunity to express their views and, also, to be fully informed.
Regards
Bob Austin
YOUNG college engineering students Samuel Murphy and Antony Shelton are celebrating after winning prestigious Oxfordshire Young Engineer High Sheriff?s Awards 2011. Samuel has been named Oxfordshire Young Engineer of the Year. Antony, from Thame, won the Most Outstanding Progress Award.
The awards recognise the achievements of 14-16 year old students enrolled with Oxford & Cherwell Valley College in either an Engineering Young Apprenticeship or on the new Motorsport Young Apprenticeship course. They were presented by The High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, Mrs Penelope Glen, at an evening celebration hosted by Bicester-based engine and machinery supplier E.P. Barrus Ltd, www.barrus.co.uk.
Samuel, from St Gregory the Great School, Cowley and Antony, from Lord Williams?s, Thame are both studying one day a week for engineering qualifications at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College. They headed a strong field of sixty 14-16 year old OCVC engineering students who study either at its Oxford or Bicester campuses.
The High Sheriff said: ?This is the third annual Oxfordshire Young Engineer High Sheriff?s Award, originally the initiative of Mr Richard Dick, a former High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, Oxford & Cherwell Valley College and the Oxfordshire Education Authority. I was delighted to present this year?s award and to support our young engineers of the future who are entering into a profession that has struggled with its appeal in recent years.?
E. P. Barrus Ltd is the leading manufacturer of custom-built engines for the RNLI, the MoD and numerous emergency services organisations. Chairman of E. P. Barrus Ltd, Mr Robert Glen, sais: ?We were proud to host the Oxfordshire Young Engineer High Sheriff?s Award this year. As a company dependent on a continuing high level of engineering skills, it is important that we support and encourage youngsters to take up a career in engineering. Over the years, Barrus has offered work experience placements to many young engineering students with a large proportion going on to join the company on a permanent basis.?
OCVC Head of Engineering, Andy Thomas, says: ?We are responding to an increasingly urgent need for the UK to motivate young people in engineering. We recognise that much has to be done to encourage students to develop skills that are vital to our economic development, and support a vast range of industries including manufacturing, science and the utilities. These awards help us to do that.?