All-in-one Thame news niblets

SO many Thame news snippets to report this week so here’s a digest of what’s been happening:

A MYSTERY surrounds white lines, about 3″ long, that have apparently been appearing chalked on houses in the Cromwell Road area of Thame, and also reported on social media, in Tiddington.

Some residents are linking the appearance of the chalked lines to thieves looking for dogs to steal, and with strangers seen in the area, including one in a resident’s drive-way.  PCSO Diane Jackson has advised anyone who sees anything suspicious to call 101 and report it.  (A similar series of incidents were reported in Durham back in January 2015

CRICKET coach, Manoj Parmor, is hoping to bring a ‘Street Cricket Party’ to Thame, as part of the town’s celebrations for the Queen’s 90th birthday. He’s looking for sponsors to help pay for a free-to-participants, Street Cricket event in the centre of Town, on June 10. The estimated cost of the event is £5,000 which includes road closures, security, equipment, entertainment and a gift for every child who participates. Mr Parmor is seeking help with funding via grants or sponsorship and may be awarded part of a £4,352 Queen’s Birthday Celebration grant offered by South Oxfordshire District Council, to be distributed at the discretion of the town council.

Other activities planned for the birthday celebrations include the Beacon lighting, a festival quiz, the Carnival, St Mary’s Flower festival and community bunting making – details to follow!

A CHILDREN’S Centre working group in Thame is planning for both a worst case scenario and a better scenario, while waiting for a decision about all Oxfordshire’s Children’s Centre’s, due in May. Thame Town Cllr Mary Stiles, a member of the Red Kite Children’s Centre Working Group explained this ‘two pronged approach’ at Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s Community, Leisure and Recreation committee.

The worst case scenario would be that all funding from the County Council would be withdrawn, she explained, although the latest information was that funding would be in place until the end of the current financial year. If OCC decide that £2 million pounds set aside in its February budget, can be used for ‘Children’s Centres’ instead of for ‘Children’s Services’ targeted at the most needy (a matter of a difference of interpretation between Officers and Councillors of what was actually decided), some Children’s Centres might be able to survive.

The Thame working group, made up of Cllr Stiles, members of Sharing Life Trust and the Thame Alliance Group, are looking at ways to maintain a local provision, perhaps around using the current premises in the old library building with a peppercorn rent paid to the County Council. Grants are currently being sought from local organisations and the plan is to hopefully, keep a service running and open to everyone:…”not just targeted at certain families,” explained Cllr Stiles.

“You don’t have to be poor to suffer from Post Natal Depression or to be lonely,” she added.

MUSIC in the Park is only two and half weeks away (May 1), and tickets are now available. They will be for sale on the community stall at the Thame Tuesday market for the next two Tuesdays, and again outside the town hall on April 23 and 30. The headteacher of John Hampden school, Thame, Paul Hanky, who will be performing with his band, The Rattlesnakes, will perform the official opening.

The organisers of Music in the Park have issued an appeal for an offer of storage space for files / equipment which is currently housed in temporary accommodation. Please contact the MIP Head Office via the website http://www.musicinthepark.org.uk/contact.html if you can help.

THE town council is to consider placing a flagpole to fly a Union flag in the Memorial Gardens in Upper High Street, following a suggestion by Cllr Tom Wyse. He told fellow councillors at Tuesday’s CLR meeting that seeing the flag there might make people think more about what the War Memorial means and what the gardens are there for.

THAME CARNIVAL could see town councillors dressed up as Wombles processing through the town, after councillors voted to take part in the event to draw attention to their Anti-litter campaign.