29/04/13…..’Yes’ camp spreads its message to shoppers

THE ‘Yes’ Campaign, who are encouraging the people of Thame and Moreton to vote to accept the Thame Neighbourhood Plan, attracted a lot of attention when they ‘camped out’ in the town centre on Saturday.

Alongside another stand, manned by Thame Town Council, the ‘Yes’ group answered questions from passers by about the Neighbourhood Plan, and visitors to their tent included Thame’s MP, John Howell, and Michael Oatway, Oxfordshire’s Youth Parliament representative. Michael said: “”The neighbourhood plan has got Thame’s best intrests at heart and will be greatly beneficial to all residents if voted in.”

Jeannette Matelot Green, for the ‘Yes’ campaign, who was on the spot most of the day with fellow members, in their distinctive T-shirts, told ThameNews.Net: “We spoke to many residents and the key questions were: Using the Plan to explain where the housing would be allocated; Primary school and health centre provision;
Where the Elms Field allocation had come from – we explained that this had come forward later in the consultations and it had been agreed that SODC and English Heritage had no objection to this and therefore
it would get planning permission whether we vote Yes or No.

“We explained that if the Plan was turned down,the 45 houses would then be considered Windfall and would be added to the 775 houses making it 820 houses. Some residents still thought they were voting for 775 houses and once they realised that was not the case, they thought they would now vote Yes.

” Another popular questions was what would happen about the Cattle Market if there was a No vote. We couldn’t say what Sainsburys would do, but the most likely outcome was that they would appeal against SODC’s decision to refuse their planning application.”

On Sunday, Thame enjoyed being in the political limelight, when the town and its plan featured on the Politics show on Sunday, on the BBC. There representatives from both the No and the Yes camp had their say, and Neighbourhood plans in general were discussed by studio guests.

You can watch the Politic Show on iplayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01rxx34/Sunday_Politics_South_28_04_2013/ It’s at about 48:14 secs along.

IMAGE: (Courtesy of Nick White Photography) John Howell MP urges local people to vote for the Thame Neighbourhood Plan