06/12/11……Local businesses help plan for Thame’s future

A group of Thame business owners and representatives glanced into the future of the town yesterday, when they learned about some of the work that has been going on to explore how Thame may develop and grow in the next 20 years or so.

Thame4Business heard from their lunch guest, Sue Rowlands of Tibbalds Planning & Urban Design, who are working with Thame Town Council on the Thame Town Plan. The Thame Town Plan is a ?Neighbourhood Development Plan?, a new approach to planning that is being brought in by the Government.

What is the Neighbourhood Plan?

Sue explained how the Localism Act, expected to come into full effect by April 2012, provides local people with an opportunity to influence future planning in their area by creating Neighbourhood Development Plans such as the Thame Town Plan. However, the Thame Town Plan will need to be in line with South Oxfordshire District Council?s Core Strategy. As the Core Strategy won?t be fixed until February 2012, the Thame Town Plan can?t be finalised until after this. However, she explained that the Thame Town Plan will need to accommodate 775 houses over the next 20 years or so, along with two hectares of employment land. The Town Plan will also need to consider issues such as the future of retail in the town centre and the effects of new housing on the town. The Thame Town Plan is expected to begin the process of being adopted in Spring 2012.

How much ‘say’ will local people have?

Sue explained the need to plan for different outcomes of the Inspector?s report on the Core Strategy currently being considered, i.e. whether all the houses should be built on one site, or spread around several smaller sites as TTC and many residents? group want. The Inspector has indicated in a preliminary report, that he supports the identification of sites through the Neighbourhood Plan process but this will not be confirmed until he makes his final decision in February 2012.

The ‘vision’ so far

Having explained what the Thame Town Plan will do, Sue moved on to presenting a summary of the exhibition that many local people attended at the Town Hall in mid November. The full exhibition is available to download from TTC?s website. The ?Vision? for the future of the town that has emerged so far from the workshops and drop-in sessions is that Thame must retain its character as a ?real market town?. This means it should continue to feel ?small? and act as a centre of surrounding villages and agricultural communities.

‘Small’ town?

Some members present at the meeting were concerned about the connotations of ?small town? and its possible association with ?small mindedness? and being unwilling to progress and felt that, as agreed in the recent town branding work, Thame should continue to ?punch above its weight? and use its accessibility from a main line railway station etc, to attract shoppers and visitors from London and the larger towns within easy travelling distance. It was suggested that we must attract people back who come for the food festival, the Arts and Literature festivals etc and that we need a strategic plan for that.

Approaches to future development

Sue explained that, at this stage, the consultation was looking at potential development sites at a strategic level ? that is, broadly where development could go rather detailed issues. This includes planning for different outcomes of SODC?s Core Strategy. As reported last week, it may be that – instead of most of the new housing being built on a single site – the Thame Town Plan may get to decide where to put new housing. The exhibition included four different approaches to locating new houses, including two that spread development around several smaller sites as TTC and many local people want.

New employment sites

The exhibition also looked at different locations for new employment – e.g. office accommodation similar to Oxford House on the Oxford Road; possibly a small element on the Cattlemarket as part of a mixed-use scheme.

Alun Rowe, who had attended some of the workshops, reported back on points raised and comments made by his group. He said that he felt the process of the Consultation was working well and would be of great benefit to the town. He suggested that an economic focus was a prime part of Tibbalds?s work. His group, he explained, looked at where businesses are located and considered how we might get existing town centre businesses to move to the outskirts, integrating with more industrial type businesses. This would help with the problem of business parking in Thame, he suggested, and help tackle what has become known as ?the Thame Shuffle? where cars have to be moved every two or three hours to avoid penalties.

What sort of new employers should we try to attract?

Alun also mentioned that his group discussed ways of attracting another big employer to the town, someone similar to CPM for instance. He also talked about supporting the Thame Show more and helping to market it more. He concluded that the strongly felt view in his working group was that the town definitely does not need another supermarket, and that there were compelling reasons why it would be economically damaging to the town. He emphasised the need for more local businesses to get involved in the consultation.

What sort of new buildings do we need?

In the discussion that followed, one member said that she felt there was a need for change of use for old buildings in the town centre that were not popular with new businesses, into apartments for young people for example, and for new office building to be built. Sue noted that there seemed to be a lack of modern office building which could possibly be provided alongside the new residential development areas or within the Cattlemarket as part of a mixed-use development.

Encouraging less out-commuting from Thame

Another member thought that there should be a lot more opportunity for people to work in Thame, and it was interesting to learn from Sue that there is a very high level of ?out commuting? ? that is, people living in Thame traveling to work elsewhere. Another member said we needed to be careful about encouraging too many businesses out of the town centre as they are what makes for a mixed and vibrant town centre, and that it was important to remember that employees of these town centre businesses use the post office, the shops and especially the food outlets where they buy lunch etc.

The Consultation itself

On the Consultation process itself, one or two members said that they he had not received any direct communication about the consultation, one of them stating that he would have got more involved if he had understood it a bit more. Attendees noted that the recent Sainsbury?s consultation had involved lots of leaflets. Sue explained that the Town Council does not have the same budget available to it as Sainsbury?s, but said that Tibbalds would work with TTC to find ways of improving publicity.

She thanked the group for their feedback and hoped that collectively it would submit some ideas and suggestions to the process, and that it would suggest ways of contacting a broader range of business people.