What’s been going on? Thame news brings you up-to-date

SUCH a lot has been happening in Thame over the past week while Thame.Net has been away, that we’ve decided to give you an all-in-one, news digest in bite-size chunks from the news we think you won’t want to miss.

GUIDANCE to the district council (SODC) on affordable home contributions has changed which is good news for the future numbers of ‘affordable homes’ in the district. Some Government guidance that made it more difficult for SODC as the planning authority to meet its affordable housing targets has been overturned by the High Court. The guidance said SODC could only ask developers to provide affordable housing in developments over ten homes, whereas under the district council’s own policies, it could. The council has said that unfortunately, while this guidance was in place, it missed out on a small number of affordable homes on planning decisions it made, but now the council will be returning to using its own policies.

LOCAL Optometrist Ivan Cammack has completed a mammoth cycling challenge over the weekend, pedalling 174km (108.1 miles) to raise money for charity. Ivan, who owns eye care practices in Chinnor, Thame and Wendover, smashed his original target of £1250 and has so far raised over £2000 for Optometry Giving Sight. The money will go towards preventing blindness and impaired vision in countries where access to eye care is limited.  As part of a cycling team of six, Ivan completed his challenge on Sunday 30th August, riding the entire 1st Stage route of the Tour de Yorkshire. Starting in Scarborough, the team passed through the North York Moors National Park, Dalby Forest and back along the coast via Whitby to finish up in Scarborough. The gruelling route features a 1.5km climb out of Robin Hood’s Bay with an average gradient of 10%.

Lucy Mair

TOMORROW, September 4, sees local singer-songwriter, Lucy Mair, release her debut single, The Fool. The seventeen year-old musician signed to Thame-based record label, BFS Records, in June 2015 and she has spent the last two months perfecting her debut studio EP. Whilst the EP won’t be released until the Autumn, Lucy’s single will be available via all good digital retailers on September 4, and the release will be celebrated with an intimate launch party at the very studio in which the EP was record. Limited tickets are available to the public at www.bfsrecords.co.uk. The launch event will take place at Blackfrog Studios (Jefferson Way, Thame) with music commencing at 8.30pm.

TAL (Thame Arts & Literature Festival) 2015 Box Office is now open and not only can you visit Thame Town Hall on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays or telephone TAL 0871 288 3420, but you can choose and order tickets in the comfort of your own home. Go on-line to http://tal-festival.myshopify.com/ No charge for using cards! There are 36 events taking place in the 6th Annual TAL Festival. Check them all out at www.talfestival.org and book quickly. Includes music, TAL kids, short story, poetry, Workshops and cinema.

Meet SORTEDfood at Thame Food Festival

THAME FOOD FESTIVAL is really excited to have Ben Ebbrell from SORTEDfood chatting to Lotte Duncn at 3pm on the Interview Stage. Have a quick look at their YouTube channel to see why they have over 1.25m subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/user/sortedfood PHOTO

ALSO, the organisers of the Thame Food Festival are hungry for help from volunteers. They would be really pleased to hear from anyone who could spare an hour or two to help in the run up to the event, or on the day to help the event run smoothly. If you can spare some time please email alison@thamefoodfestival.co.uk

FLORENCE Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), which looks after many people from the Thame area with life-limiting illness,  has today officially announced it will be opening a new retail outlet in Haddenham, located at 20 Fort End, with a focus on encouraging local supporters to drop donations for sorting and distribution to the charity’s six shops in Aylesbury, Chinnor, Leighton Buzzard, Wendover, Winslow and recently-opened Thame. The store will be used primarily as a ‘Donation Drop Zone’ to encourage donors to drop off their donations, which will then be transported to the Charity’s newly-established Distribution Centre in Aylesbury (a new Furniture Showroom, located on Chamberlain Road, Aylesbury, and set to be unveiled by the Town Mayor of Aylesbury, Cllr Allison Harrison, on Saturday at 10am), where they will be sorted and stored – awaiting despatch to FNHC’s current shops. The store will be manned by volunteers, with opening times and an opening date to be confirmed in the near future. If you are interested in supporting your local hospice, and have a few hours to spare each week, please contact Tracey O’Hara, FNHC Volunteer Services Manager on 01296 332600 for an informal chat or email traceyohara@fnhospice.org.uk You can also find more information about volunteering via this link – www.fnhospice.org.uk/main_menu/get- involved/volunteering/

THAME Town Council Saturday Surgeries are to be reinstated, and no matter how you feel, councillors want to hear from you! Saturday Surgeries were reviewed in 2013 and replaced by an online meeting request service whereby members of the public could book a meeting with a Councillor at a time and place of their choosing. This system will still be available but will be complemented by the monthly drop-in surgeries that will take place in the Town Hall. The first Saturday Surgery will be on September 5, between 10am – 12noon, and will run every first Saturday of the month at the same time for a trial period of six months. No appointment is necessary, just go along to give your views or ask councillors a question.

TO help save money, Oxfordshire County Council is thinking about reducing the number of Recycling centres from seven down to three or four and reducing opening times by around 18 hours per week. If you share SODC’s concerns, the council is inviting residents to comment on the proposals by visiting the county council’s website
https://consultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/HWRCstrategy/consultationHome The deadline is Monday October 5.

BUSES – Time is running out if you want to comment on the county council’s plans to cut funding for subsidised bus services and Dial-A-Ride. The county is looking to save more than £6 million on supported transport services and some of these savings will have to come from the £4 million a year it pays in bus subsidies and for the Dial-A-Ride service. For more information on what services could be affected and to give your views visit the consultation page http://tiny.cc/r87t2x by September 14.

RECYCLING – Now you can recycle even more from the kerbside. From September 7, small electrical waste and textiles (clothes, etc) can be put out for recycling. Textiles like torn or worn out clothes, curtains and bed sheets that aren’t good enough for charity – put any in a tied carried bag next to your green bin on recycling days from September 7. Small electrical items like toasters, kettles, irons, hairdryers, small electronic toys, and radios need to placed in a carrier bag and put out next to your Grey waste bin from September 14. For more on what can be recycled visit http://tiny.cc/md8t2x

GARDEN WASTE – If you’re one of South Oxfordshire Distric Council’s garden waste customers then you can leave double the amount out for collection on the week beginning October 12. Just one bin’s worth of extra garden waste in an open box or bag next to your brown bin on your normal collection day.

NATIONAL FITNESS DAY – On Wednesday, September 9, your local Better Leisure Centre in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse (including Thame Leisure Centre), is providing free activities for everyone as part of their involvement in National Fitness Day helping make it the most active day of the year in the UK. People across the country will be given access to gyms, health clubs, leisure centres and park sessions throughout the UK as part of National Fitness Day – the country’s largest celebration of physical activity. With thousands of free events on offer, the aim is to inspire people to get moving while making it easy and fun to try something new with free taster sessions. http://www.better.org.uk/