20/06/11….What are the true figures for new houses in Thame?

DEAR EDITOR, I read the article on Lord Williams?s School, in last Friday?s Gazette, with interest. Though short of detail, it laid out the understandable ambitions of one, very important, stakeholder in Thame.

The implications for the town as a whole, however, caused me some concern that public knowledge of the latest possibilities for the Core Strategy might be lacking. Apart from some recent references to the need to increase the number of houses specified in Site F, I am not aware of any references to any ultimate figure for house building.

As I understand it, and purely from memory, the following could be the situation:

Site F accounted for 560 houses. The school proposals could account for 250+ with about 200 houses recently built, being built or about to be built already. (I obtained the latter figure from a recent local election leaflet.) The total amounts to about 1000 houses – a potential increase in the population of 25%? This together with the potential, purely commercial, Sainsbury’s proposals would transform the town utterly. It would be a milestone along the road of Thame ceasing to be a market town. The infrastructure investment implications would be enormous for schools, doctors, transport etc.

To take Lord Williams?s School as an example, and unless demographic trends intervene, it could imply an increase in size towards 3000 pupils a figure so big that it might necessitate a split back into 2 schools- a return to the current 2 sites! Alternatively, numbers could be restricted by reducing intake from the surrounding, Buckinghamshire, villages. The latter would necessitate Buckinghamshire having to build a new secondary school. This would be a denial of Thame?s role as a market town at the centre of a hinterland that naturally pays scant regard to administrative boundaries and, also, of current parental expectations that appreciate a fully comprehensive school environment.

I do not raise these issues to be alarmist but to enquire whether enough public discussion has taken place. The Inspector is about to begin work. We need to know the parameters of what could happen.

A few questions:
What could be the figure for the houses Thame is expected to provide?
Would this figure be proportionate to Thame’s size in comparison to South Oxfordshire as a whole?
What are the potential infrastructure implications and are they fundable?

The people of Thame need a further opportunity to express their views and, also, to be fully informed.

Regards

Bob Austin