Pied Pedaller Turns Down Lease Extension

A TOY shop in Thame, which is due to close to make way for a new library, has turned down the offer of a lease extension, made by its landlord, Oxfordshire County Council.
Since it was known that the shop would have to close in February when the current lease ends, the shop staff have been inundated with expressions of sadness and regret from both customers and business groups within the town, who fear its closure would be to the detriment of the town.

The company that owns the shop, Pied Pedaller in North Street, Thame, is Toy Zone and its Managing Director, Ed Tilley, told ThameNews.Net today: “The County Council has offered us an extension to the lease until September, 2008, which is no good to us, especially when they say they want to be able to break the lease anytime they want after April 30!
“Like most other toy shops, we make a financial loss for nine months of the year, but make enough profit in the three months leading up to Christmas to cover the losses.
“Therefore, we have been asking for a one year lease to carry us over Christmas, 2008.”
“There is still so much uncertainty over the new library; the town council are unhappy with the design and turned it down and it looks as though the cattlemarket may be moving which opens up the possibility of an alternative site for the library.
“Surely while there is so much uncertainty, it would be silly to close the Pied Pedaller which has been there for so many years when the whole thing could fall through?”
“I suspect that the whole thing is political and that they are just offering us this so that they can say they offered us an extension of the lease and we turned it down.”
“How can it be in the interest of the town, to close the Pied Pedaller on September 30?”

Oxfordshire County Council today issued the following statement:
“Oxfordshire County Council has put in a planning application to knock down the existing building on the council?s own site in North Street, Thame, and replace it with a library.
The application, reference number S20/07, is due to go before the county council?s Planning and Regulation Committee in February 2008 and has already been submitted for Conservation Area Consent.”

County Librarian, Caroline Taylor, said: ?Thame families need and deserve a new and better library to replace the existing one in Southern Road and there has been strong recognition of this for a long time from the community.
?We have spent several years considering the various options. Our site in North Street is the only suitable one available.
“Planning permission to demolish the existing building on the site and replace it with a library that is better suited to people’s needs is now being sought and we hope to start work next year.
“We believe Thame’s families will be very pleased indeed with the new library, which will be larger, better located and easier to access compared to the existing cramped, inaccessible and worn-out library.?

The statement continues: “The proprietor of the toy shop business which currently occupies the North Street site has known for many years that it would eventually become a library. Oxfordshire County Council has offered Ed Tilley, the director of the toy shop, a new short-term lease. It is now up to him to decide if he wishes to stay until construction work begins, or to leave the premises vacant in February.”

A supporter of retaining The Pied Pedaller has apparently drawn the shop’s attention to a clause in the South Oxfordshire Local Plan that they believe would be contravened if the shop was closed and was replaced by a library.
The South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2011, policy TC8 states “Within the primary shop frontages of each town centre (including Thame)…a change of use of a shop (Class A1) to a non-shop will not be permitted if it would undermine the vitality and viability, and the dominant retailing character and function, of the primary shopping frontages of each centre.”

The shop has prepared a letter which they are asking customers to sign and send to the Planning department at South Oxfordshire District Council.