12/10/10……Town council’s preferred development site ‘not suitable’
Dear Sir/Madam, It appears that Thame Town Council have changed their mind regarding the preferred location for the proposed 530 homes in Thame. It seems that they council are now favouring a site in between the by-pass and the Oxford road. This site is wholly unsuitable for a number of reasons a notable one being the traffic impact along the Oxford road and the significant danger this would pose to the school children at Lord Williams Uppers School.
In addition this site is completely visible and would be an eye-sore on the beautiful countryside seriously damaging the ambience of the old market town. The council seem to have disregarded the original site bordering Thame Park Road which has immediate access to the Phoenix Trail and where the visual impact would also be much less.
The council started a consultation period for the Oxford Road site last Monday with the closing date for comments being 29th October. However, the consultation period has not been well publicised and it seems the vast majority of Thame are not aware of this new proposal. It is imperative that people are made aware and quickly given the short consultation period and the imminent closing date.
Yours faithfully
Fiona Guy (Mrs)
Copy of letter sent by Fiona Guy to The Oxford Mail:
Letters to the Editor
Oxford Times
Newspaper House
Osney Mead
Oxford OX2 0EJ
Sir
I was interested to read the letter of Mrs N Mallows (Less is more, Times, 7 October 2010), who lives in Stanton St John, who was responding to the South Oxfordshire District Council public consultation in regard to their Core Strategy Review. Mrs Mallows is fortunate to know about such a public consultation.
The vast bulk of the population of Thame hardly know such a consultation is going on. Apparently this so-called public consultation went ?live? on Monday, 1st October, on the council?s web site. But, unless you visit the web site regularly, or visit Thame Library, where there are copies of a leaflet, you are not aware of such a consultation.
Back in 2007 the council consulted on five different site options for 800 new houses in Thame and came down in favour of a site off Thame Park Road for sound planning reasons. Now Thame Town Council has changed its mind yet again and has come down in favour of a site bordered by the by-pass and Oxford Road. Surely as the council which has the interests of the people of Thame at heart, the town council should have consulted everyone in Thame before opting for something else?
Apparently county councillors and the town council are supporting the Oxford Road because they would like to ?move? Lord Williams?s Lower School from Towersey Drive to this site. There has also been talk of a new hotel being located on this site.
SODC has said it wants to reduce the housing numbers in Thame from 850 to 530. Clearly as a resident in Thame I would support this however it appears that some local councillors are trying to put more development onto the Oxford road site by stealth. The so called consultation is on housing only with no mention of the school move or suggested hotel. Mrs Mallows makes the point ?less is more? which is absolutely correct for Thame however sadly it seems this view is not shared by some local councillors.
We overlook the Oxford Road site and only after one of my neighbours contacted SODC early last week did we receive a letter informing us of the public consultation. This letter was dated 7th October and we received it on 9th October, nearly a full week after the start of the consultation period. Others is this area have not heard anything.
I hope you publish this letter to alert people about what is going on. David Cameron, an Oxfordshire MP promised us Localism, and local people would be listened to. But how can people respond if there is no meaningful public consultation? The deadline for comments is very soon ? 29th October. Be warned.
Yours faithfully
Fiona Guy
