‘No further police action’ after Town Plan accusations

THAMES Valley Police will take no further action, following accusations of malpractice in the recent Referendum to decide the fate of Thame’s Neighbourhood Plan.

At a meeting of South Oxfordshire District Council on July 18, to make the Thame Neighbourhood Plan part of the Development Plan for South Oxfordshire, Thame Landowner, Mr J. Castle, who admitted to the council that he had a beneficial interest in Site F, said that he considered it premature to make the Thame Neighbourhood Plan part of the Development Plan for South Oxfordshire whilst a police investigation into possible breaches of the legal referendum expenditure limits by the ‘Yes’ campaign was ongoing. He questioned whether, in light of this, the referendum could have been considered free and fair.

But today, Thame Valley Police told ThameNews.Net: “A number of allegations of election malpractice from both parties involved in the Thame referendum were made to the police.

“These have been fully investigated and all parties were written to in mid-July to say there will be no further police action as no crime had been committed.”

In response to the issues raised by Mr Castle at the district council meeting on July 18, Mrs Reed, Head of Legal and Democratic Services, advised that even if there were criminal proceedings, prosecutions and a conviction, it would not have resulted in the referendum result being set aside.

“There was a six week period from publication of the referendum result within which a legal challenge of the conduct of the referendum could be brought by way of
judicial review. That had passed and there had been no such challenge,” she said. “Council could therefore act on the referendum result without awaiting the outcome of the any other investigation underway and act on the recommendation of Cabinet.”