Can Thame cope with an additional 600 new homes?

A public meeting is to be held in Thame to discuss the potential imposition of an extra 600 houses on Thame, as part of the New Local Plan 2032, currently out for consultation.

Thame Town Council is hosting the meeting which will be held at St Mary’s Church, Thame at 7:30pm on Thursday, August 4, 2016, to which all residents and businesses of Thame are invited.

The Local Planning Authority for Thame, South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC), has come up with its ‘Preferred Options’ for the New Local Plan for development in the town up to the year 2032. The new plan will replace the Local Plan 2026, and if adopted will require the Thame Neighbourhood Plan to be revised and the new plan adopted by 2018 – a legal process for which there is no provision for as yet!

More retail and more employment land too!

Those preferred options include a suggestion of 600 additional new houses for Thame, along with 1500 square metres (net sales area) of additional convenience/food retail space, and an extra 2.5 hectares of employment land, on top of all that is already provided for in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan, as adopted in 2013. And a nearby reservoir.

A growing Haddenham

At the same time, the Vale of Aylesbury is consulting on its Local Plan proposals (VALP) which include an additional, approximately 5,500 new dwellings in and near Haddenham, which will have consequences for Thame, given its proximity to the local services of the centre of Thame.

The Town Council will be responding to both consultations (by the SODC deadline of 4:30pm on Friday, August 19, 2016, and the VALP deadline of Monday, September 5, 2016).

Thame Town Council has called the Public Meeting for a variety of reasons, including;

• To provide additional specific information for the residents and businesses of Thame on what is being suggested.
• To encourage all residents and businesses of Thame to respond to either or both consultations.
• To help inform the consultation responses that the Town Council will itself make, as the elected body, on behalf of the town.

‘Thame has enough!’

The Town Council’s initial view is that: “The adopted Thame Neighbourhood Plan already provides all that is needed to ensure Thame’s continuing vibrancy and vitality. Even if the defined additional needs are real, there are more appropriate (and sustainable) places for their delivery in South Oxfordshire. But the Town Council is prepared to be persuaded otherwise. Can Thame cope with what is being proposed? Would some or all of what is being proposed be of benefit? The Town Council is keen to hear as many people’s views as possible, and we are sure that the Planning Authorities are also keen to hear those views.

“We must ultimately all work together,” states the council, “to ensure that South Oxfordshire grows in a sustainable way for the benefit of its existing community, and this Public Meeting is a step towards that.

“We do hope that many people will attend the public meeting to both listen to what is being proposed and to express their views.”