New Mayor ready to face Thame’s ‘changes and challenges’

THAME’S new mayor, Linda Emery, has received her Chain of Office from the out-going Mayor, Nichola Dixon, who becomes Linda’s Deputy. In her acceptance speech, Linda said: “Thame is a wonderful place to live because it has an amazing community spirit. We are going to go through changes and challenges in my year as Mayor but I have great confidence in Graham (Hunt), our Town Clerk, all the Thame Council team, and the Business Teams.

“We will all work together to embrace change and adapt to it to our best advantage for our community.”

Cllr Linda Emery (left) the new Mayor of Thame, and her Deputy, Cllr Nichola Dixon

After thanking fellow Councillors, Officers, the Maintenance team and the Town Clerk for all their support during her Mayoral year, Cllr Dixon presented cheques to representatives of her chosen chairites, the Thame and District Day Centre, represented by Tyrell Gillman, and the Thame to Thame Earthquake Fund, represented by Charlie Tyson Taylor. Including funds raised through her sponsored Parachute jump, Cllr Dixon raised a total £5,600.

Mayor Emery’s chosen charities for her year are the Red Kite Children’s Centre and Thame Youth Projects Group, supporting the Thame Youth Cafe. The Red Kite Children’s Centre provides a range of sessions for families and children antenatally to five years, including teenage parents and children with disabilities. It provide fun and stimulating play sessions, offering families support and advice on benefits, volunteering, two year-old funding, returning to work and much more.

Cllr Emery is also hoping to hold a one-off fund raising event to help The Rycote Practice at Thame Health Centre’s Patients Fund Account with a donation to assist with medical equipment requirements as and when – a new set of baby scales for instance costs £250.

The aim of the Youth Café is to help young people to develop their physical, mental and spiritual capacities through their leisure time activities, so that they may develop as individuals and members of the community. They meet at Christchurch once a week. They currently need to fund another leader to start an older session for the 14 -18 year-old age range.