Author: Sonja Francis

THE name of one of the new streets in the Rycotewood housing development, currently being built on the site of the old Rycotewood college in Thame, is not classy enough to reflect the high price of the new residences – and the town council has been asked to suggest a new name.
Potential buyers of the new homes, in what was to be called ‘Union way’, have asked the district council to change the name to something else that reflects the quality of the new homes being built there. The ‘Union’ was the popular name give to the old Workhouse, which was the original pupose of the old building which has now been converted to prestigeous apartments.
But town councillors, who had chosen the original name at the request of the district council, were not willing to totally change the name, at a meeting of the Planning committee last night. However, they did agree with a suggestion by Cllr Don Butler that the name be altered to ‘Old Union Way’, which councillors agreed “softened” the name somewhat.

Photo: Rycotewood as it looks today, ‘the Sales Suite’ (picture courtesy of Rycotewood Association’s website)

THE Chief Executive of South Oxfordshire District Council has expressed doubts about the suitability of the site proposed for a new Thame cattle market.
Answering questions put to him by Thame Town Councillors last night, David Buckle, Chief Executive for SODC, said: “We are in serious dialogue with the Farmers’ Co-operative but there are still some policy issues that are unresolved and it is questionable whether it is an appropriate site for a cattle market. Therefore it is unlikely that we are going to be able to give planning permission for the alternative site.
“But there is on-going dialogue between us and them and if the proposal does get planning permission, we will be quite active in starting a dialogue in ernest and active in making it happen.”
Mr Buckle also said that there was the issue of how much money the Developer might take from the cattle market.

Developer and cattle market support, Bob Williams, whose company has submitted the plan to move the cattle market to the Thame Show site, told ThameNews.Net today: “As far as we are concerned, Planning policy and the Structure Plan for the district allows for agricultural use of this rural area. We will certainly be making representation of our case at the Planning meeting at SODC on August 11.”

A LOCAL Environmentalist, and member of Thame and Chinnor Friends of the Earth, has submitted the following letter to Thamenews.net, entitled ‘Flooding gets nearer’.
“We all feel great sympathy with all those affected by the recent floods, in Yorkshire, the Midlands, Worcester and now Oxfordshire, and maybe we are wondering how we would have coped, (if we have not already been flooded).
The Met Office call it ?A notable weather event?, and there are already theories being put forward.
Yet scientists have been warning us for years that Climate Change is expected to make extreme weather more common in Britain. The science is simple. As the oceans become warmer, more water evaporates to be carried and dropped by clouds as rain, in greater quantities.
There are going to be many who will deny it ? that’s human nature when faced with something that we find too hard to deal with.
But even if you say it was simply the British weather, almost daily we read or hear that Climate Change is implicated in yet another broken weather statistic; Polar ice caps are melting at a rapid rate; typhoons are are more frequent and powerful; habitats are changing.
And so must we, the Government too. We should be hearing a clear and simple message from politicians, that ?This notable weather event? is just an example of what lies ahead for us all, if we and others all around the world do not change our ways and reduce our impact on this unwanted Climate Change.
How many of us are prepared to give up some car journeys, walk the children to school instead of driving, reconsider that cheap flight holiday, turn down our thermostats in winter and try to cool our houses naturally in the summer, for example by keeping doors closed and curtains drawn instead of turning on another fan to cool down.
We can all support Green Energy by switching to a Green Energy company such as GOOD ENERGY, or invest in Solar Panels if you can afford to do so.
But are we prepared to make changes, and some sacrifices too?
It could be our turn next time. How would you cope if the floods reached you?”
Maureen Dyroff.

Photo: Local boys enjoy the flooding by the bridge at Shabbington, whilst a car struggles to get through. Could this become a more common sight as global warming continues?