Author: Sonja Francis

THAME Town Council is to consider the future of parking in Thame, following a report commissioned by the 21st Century Thame Partnership.
The report, called Parking For All, has already been presented to both the council’s Traffic Advisory and the Policy and Resources committee and will now go before the Planning committee and eventually the full council.
The report’s authors, The Transport and Environment arm of the Partnership, looked at residential, visitor and business parking in the town centre and have made several recommendations including providing additional parking near the Southern Road Recreational ground, a designated parking area for businesses and extending the current Residential Permit scheme for people who live in the town centre.

Parking throughout Oxfordshire is due to be de-criminalised from April 2008, when parking restriction enforcement will no longer be carried out by Traffic Wardens on behalf of the police but contracted out by the county council or in some cases, the district council.

PIED PEDALLER, the Thame toy shop, has been given notice to quit its North Street premises.
The building, which was bought five years ago by Oxfordshire County Council with a view to turning it in to a new library, must be vacated by February 24.

THE next Swap Shop is on Saturday, March 10, NOT February 20, as previously reported.
It will be held in Christchurch, Thame, and NOT the Town hall, where last Saturday’s event took place.
Apologies for any confusion.

THAME awoke this morning to find itself mantled in a 2cm covering of snow.
Despite presenting motorists with a slippery and slow journey to work first thing, those school children lucky enough to be walking to school, could be seen making the most of it. They threw snowballs at each other in the time honoured way and at the Churchill Play area, en route to both Lord Williams’s Lower school and Barley Hill Primary school, several snowmen appeared, complete with carrots for noses, twigs for arms and biscuits for eyes.
By Mid-day, the sun had appeared and melted most of the laying snow. But, though Thursday should be a dry day, more snow showers are forecast for the early hours of Friday morning.

THIEVES and counterfeiters who use car boot sales to sell stolen property and pirate goods have been targeted in a county council investigation.
The probe took place in 2006 and found that, in the vast majority of cases, car boot sales attracted legitimate sellers, who provide a place to shop that is highly valued by thousands of local consumers.

However, councillors also found evidence that a rogue minority were trying to take advantage of the traditionally less regulated environment afforded by car boot sales.
Councillors heard from people who were concerned that the Kassam Stadium car boot sale in Oxford and a giant event near Tetsworth, sometimes included pirate DVDs, and had some age-restricted products such as pornography and knives being sold without the proper safeguards.

While it was harder to observe with absolute certainty any stolen property, councillors did see some smuggled or counterfeit cigarettes being sold at the car boot sale in Drayton (near Abingdon).

They also learnt that some sellers who buy and sell regularly are legally classified as ?traders?. However, by not declaring this fact they are duping the public into lower levels of consumer protection.

Councillors heard that the Police and Trading Standards are increasingly concerned about the role that car boot sales play in supporting criminal activity.

A number of joint overt and undercover operations have taken place in the past year to gather intelligence about who is trading at local events.

CODES OF PRACTICE
Some areas of the country, such as Kent and Nottingham, have recently enacted their own local laws to tighten their control over the second hand trade in general. Oxfordshire councillors felt this was ultimately not cost-effective and instead gave their support for the voluntary Code of Practice recently introduced by Trading Standards. This aims to ensure that the organisers of events take greater responsibility and report anything suspicious or untoward to the authorities.

Nigel Strick, the Head of Oxfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards said: “This report is good news at a time when the Chancellor is announcing plans to reduce the abuse of copyright and intellectual property, aimed at catching criminals and explicitly targeting people who sell counterfeit CDs and DVDs at car-boot sales.
“We should not forget that in the main car boot sales are good events that people enjoy. We want to help them stay enjoyable by removing the persistent criminal minority that make considerable profits from breaking the law and poses a risk to genuine consumers and traders.?

The published report can be read on the county council?s website at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk.