Thame.net

Author: Sonja Francis

  • Appeal Following Thame Burglary

    THAME POLICE are appealing for help following a burglary in Thame – the latest in a series where entry has been gained through insecure UVPC front doors.
    Overnight, between 11pm on February 6, and 7.15am on the February 7, a burglary occurred in Glenham Road Thame, where offenders entered the house through an insecure UPVC front door and stole a number of electrical items including a plasma screen.
    Lesley Nesbitt, Crime reduction Advisor, said:”Just before Christmas there was a sharp rise in the number of house burglaries in Thame where access was being gained through insecure front doors. This is the first burglary of this kind since Christmas and is a timely reminder to other householders in Thame to ensure that they double lock their UPVC front doors before retiring to bed at night. Always know where your keys are in case you need to get out of your house in an emergency.”

    If any one saw anything suspicious or has information about this burglary, please contact Thames Valley Police on 08458 505 505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

    If you require any information on house and personal security contact your Local Crime Reduction Advisor Lesley Nesbitt on 08458 505 505

  • Railway Engineering Works This Weekend

    ALTHOUGH there will be a normal Saturday service on the Birmingham to London Marylebone via High Wycombe line this weekend, there will be engineering works on the Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon and Birmingham to London Marylebone via Bicester North, on Sunday (11/02).

    Weekend Engineering Works on the line between London Marylebone and Aylesbury via Amersham:
    This weekend – Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 February 2007 – Chiltern Railways will have scheduled track improvement works on the line between Birmingham to London Marylebone via High Wycombe and to Aylesbury to London Marylebone via Amersham.

    On Saturday there will be a normal timetabled service between the Birmingham to London Marylebone via High Wycombe line. On Sunday, buses replace trains between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon and Bicester North. Please note that hourly Virgin Cross Country train services will operate between Banbury, Leamington Spa and Birmingham New Street (via Coventry). Passengers should use these where appropriate.

    On the Aylesbury line, no Chiltern Railways trains will run between Great Missenden and London Marylebone on both Saturday and Sunday. Special buses will run between Great Missenden and Beaconsfield for Chiltern Railways connections to and from London.

    For local journeys, special buses will run between Great Missenden and Amersham and also Amersham to Northwood, for connecting London Underground services to and from London Baker Street.

    Some additional trains will run from Aylesbury to London Marylebone via High Wycombe.

    Passengers are advised to allow more time for travel and to check real time travel information on www.chilternrailways.co.uk before they travel.

    The website has full timetable information, as well as a summary of Chiltern Railways’ great value fares, such as Just

  • Two Top Short Listings For Chiltern Rail

    CHILTERN Railways have been short listed for two prestigious awards at this year’s London Transport Awards.
    The prizes up for grabs are for Best Public Service Operator of the Year and Best Rail Station of the Year.
    The awards have received the highest number of entries this year and reward and recognise excellence in transportation in London boroughs.
    Marylebone is short listed for Best Station; Donald Wilson, Station Manager at Marylebone said: “I am delighted that Marylebone has been short listed for a much coveted award. This is a tribute to all the hard work that our staff put in on a daily basis to make Marylebone the best and satisfy all our passengers’ requirements.
    “Last year, Marylebone benefited from the Project Evergreen II expansion with two new platforms and additional signalling implemented to increase capacity on the line and improve operating efficiency.
    “Further development is planned next year to keep Marylebone one of the top train stations.”

    Among the judges were members of the passenger user groups including Rufus Barnes, Chief Executive, London TravelWatch; Nick Lester, Director of Transport, Environment and Planning, London Councils; and Irving Yass, Director of Policy, London First.

    Chiltern Railways also received positive passenger satisfaction feedback last week in the National Passenger Survey. Overall, 90% of passengers are satisfied with their service, the highest level ever achieved by the train company since the NPS research commenced in Spring 2002.

    The winner will be announced at the London Transport Awards Dinner on Wednesday 25th April at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

  • Find Love At Thame Leisure Centre!

    THIS Valentine?s Day, February 14, SOLLutions Health and Fitness health clubs are calling on all singletons to get up and get active in the pursuit of love.
    A series of activities had been organised at the health clubs, including the TLC, to help people find the man or woman of their dreams.
    During February SOLLutions is asking for a voluntary contribution to the British Heart Foundation to ensure as many people as possible have a happy heart this Valentine?s Day.
    SOLLutions is also offering a Valentine Competition. By entering you stand a chance to win an overnight stay for two, including dinner and breakfast, at the Shillingford Bridge Hotel in Wallingford.

    Claire Millar-Watt, event co-ordinator, explained:”More and more people are meeting the love of their lives in their local leisure centre or gym. Because of this, SOLLutions has put together a number of activities with Valentine?s Day in mind.
    “Your local gym is a really good place to meet someone you?re attracted to. The chances are you will share hobbies and interests, so you will automatically have something to talk about. Gyms and leisure centres also have a really relaxed atmosphere ? you don?t feel the same pressure to ?chat people up? as you do in a pub or a nightclub and alcohol isn?t involved ? so you are more likely to be yourself.?

    Please contact you nearest SOLLutions Health Club to find out more about special activities on offer this Valentine?s Day.

    www.soll-leisure.co.uk

  • TLC Commended For Excellence

    SOLL LEISURE, which manages Thame Leisure Centre on behalf of Thame Town Council and South Oxfordshire County Council, has received a prestiguous award from the Sport England National Benchmarking Service.

    Two SOLL Leisure managed sports centres, including Thame, have been commended for Excellence in Finance by Sport England.
    On December 6, 2006, Didcot Wave and Thame Leisure Centre received a Certificate for achieving Excellence in Finance in 2006 from the Sport England National Benchmarking Service (NBS).
    The NBS measures the performance of leisure centres using performance indictors, including usage by particular target groups, finance, and customer satisfaction.

    Peter Taylor (Professor of Sport and Economics & Technical Analyst for the NBS) stated; ?For best practice Didcot Wave and Thame Leisure Centre were selected as two of the five centres in the finance category primarily for their performance in achieving high income and low subsidy requirements. The identification of Didcot Wave and Thame Leisure Centre is a credit to SOLL. SOLL have participated in the NBS since 2002 and they are clearly aware of the value of performance measures in driving improvement in their centres?.

    Staff from both centres attended the NBS conference in Sheffield to receive the award and participate in the seminars held throughout the day. The seminars illustrated best practice by using examples from top performing centres related to the specific areas measured by the NBS.

    Roger Cowdrey, Chairman of SOLL Leisure commented ?I am delighted that the excellent work at Thame and Didcot has been recognised nationally . This is a credit to all staff at these sites who are focusing on increasing community participation and providing the Council with value for money?

  • Would You Like Larger Recycling Bins? (Contributed)

    EVERYDAY, the newspapers raise the issue of our environment and how we are destroying our planet with global warming, landfill sites and car emissions. We are encouraged to cut down on our exhaust by walking or cycling to work, catching public transport, and recycling whenever possible. But how can we be expected to recycle when the proper services are not fully provided?

    In 1992, the average household produced 450 kilograms of waste per person, with only 10 kilograms of the waste being recycled. In 2004 the average weight of household waste was 500 kilograms per person, and 1/5th of this waste was recycled.

    With recycling on the increase, the time has come for better recycling facilities in our local area.

    We are a group of local students with the intention of influencing the local council to provide larger recycling bins. We feel this will promote recycling and allow people more space, as the small recycling bins provided are impractical and once filled, it is easy to fall foul of temptation and just bin the waste as usual.

    If the council are willing to provide large brown bins for garden waste, even when unnecessary in the winter months, then why are there not better facilities for recycling?

    If you have an opinion you would wish to voice, please e-mail us at: recyclinginthame@hotmail.co.uk

  • Facelift For Thornhill Park And Ride

    A NEW stage has been reached in a

  • Council To Give Land For Gadget

    THAME Town Council is to help the family of a young Thame man injured in a tragic fall, to provide an independent living space for him.
    19 year-old Martin Gadd, known to his friends as ‘Gadget’, was paralysed from the waist down a year ago and is currently undergoing physiotherapy and training at Stoke Mandeville hospital. His family live in a four-bedroomed house on Lee Park which is unsuitable for someone in a wheelchair and so approached the council to sell them a narrow stip of land adjacent to their property on which to build a self-contained annex for Martin’s use.
    At a meeting of the council’s Policy and Resources committee recently, it agreed to donate the strip of land free of charge to the Gadd family, subject to planning permission for the building being granted.

  • Two Top Awards For Thame Tennis Club

    THAME Tennis Club has recently been presented with two significant awards by the Oxfordshire Lawn Tennis Association; OXFORDSHIRE TENNIS CLUB OF THE YEAR and Coach, Simon Langley has won the accolade of OXFORDSHIRE DEVELOPMENT COACH OF THE YEAR.

    Club Chairman, Aidan Coles, said: “We are thrilled to receive such accolades, where we were up against the big city clubs in Oxford and these are in recognition of the tremendous strides forward that the club has made recently.
    “The Oxfordshire Tennis Club of the Year award was based on our improving the facilities at the Club, with the new all-weather courts and court lighting, as well as having achieved the highly sought after LTA Mini Tennis accreditation status.
    “In turn, Simon?s award of Oxfordshire Development Coach of the Year was based on that as a fully qualified and LTA licensed coach. He has not only developed a comprehensive and integrated coaching programme at the Club, he was instrumental in the Club both achieving the Mini Tennis accreditation and its inaugural success in the Oxfordshire county mini tennis competitions and has also set up a Mini Tennis programme at six local primary schools which involves nearly two hundred young players.”

    MIXED RESULTS FOR THAME TENNIS LADIES

    DESPITE the cancellation of some matches due to poor weather, Thame Tennis Club teams have completed some ties in the Aylesbury League.
    In Division 3, the Ladies first team, captained by Dawn Munro have played 3 matches so far this year and have secured two wins. Away to Tring II, they won by 5 sets to 3 and in another away tie, took a resounding 7 sets to 1 win over Marsh Gibbon.
    However, last weekend (Feb 4) their winning streak came to an end with a 3 sets to 5 loss at home to division frontrunners Halton II.
    Team: D Munro, R Suter, S Thompson, A Gornall, C Carder, J McCloud, A Green. second team, playing in Division 5, have also been in action. Missing one of their usual players, Louise Wilkins, one of the clubs junior members stepped in and played very well, helping the team to secure a good victory of 6 sets to 2 at home to Cheddington.
    Team: L Broadway, L Wilkins; A Green, R Knight (c).

  • Thame Toy Shop Gets Temporary Reprieve

    IT has just been announced that the Pied Pedaller toy shop in Thame, can now stay until January 2008.
    A statement issued by Oxfordshire County Council this afternoon states:
    “Following discussions with the company running the Pied Pedaller shop in Thame, the council has offered to extend the lease on the premises until the beginning of January 2008.

    This follows a request by the company, Toyzone, to be allowed to quit the tenancy later this month for commercial reasons rather than to stay until June as previously anticipated.

    The Pied Pedaller has accepted our offer, which we have made so that there will be the minimum time possible between the shop being closed and work starting on the new building, subject to planning permission.

    We want to ensure that it stands empty for as short a time as possible – and of course we are delighted to be able to facilitate the Pied Pedaller. It?s a win-win situation.”