Thame Town Council Update – 9 July 2020

Council Meetings:

Thame Town Council has successfully conducted its business via virtual Full Council meetings since April, whilst it has not been safe to hold meetings in the Town Hall, and will continue to do so until we can safely hold face-to-face meetings again. We will be gradually reintroducing our committee meetings, starting with Planning & Environment committee on Tuesday 14 July at 6.30pm.

Also on 14 July (after the Planning & Environment committee and not before 7.15pm) will be the rescheduled Council meeting for the Green Living Plan. There will be a presentation from the Green Living Group and the Town Council will consider adoption of the plan. If you would like to join just for Full Council, we would advise joining between 7.00pm and 7.15pm – you will be put into a virtual waiting room if you join whilst Planning & Environment is still taking place.

The meetings will both be held virtually on Zoom, and will use the same joining link and meeting ID which can be found on the agendas:

Members of the public and agents / representatives are welcome and encouraged to join both / either of the meetings. You must contact the Town Council to obtain the password, which will be issued around 2 hours before the meeting start time. You may request the password on behalf of others, but you must provide a list of their names and will be responsible for forwarding the password to them. We will only admit people into the meeting who have requested the password from us and are on our list.

Supporting our Residents and Businesses:

  • A new leaflet will be designed and sent out to all residents of Thame, providing relevant information to make residents aware of changes that are taking place and new guidance about what to do and how to get continued support if needed. This is primarily aimed at residents who do not have access to the information already available through our website at https://www.thametowncouncil.gov.uk/coronavirus/
  • We are continuing to work with town centre businesses to encourage them to explore whether SmartQ will work for them, to allow residents to access more businesses without the need to queue. The free offer and infrastructure is now in place and so it is over to businesses to choose whether or not to commit. If you feel a certain businesses you use regularly needs it, then make sure you mention it to them as in some situations they may only want to explore it if customers request it.
  • Following unprecedented levels of walking and cycling across the UK during the pandemic, central government is keen to see plans to help encourage more people to choose alternatives to public transport when they need to travel, making healthier habits easier. With more people working from home than ever before more people feeling confident to cycle and walk into town (rather than use their cars) will reduce pressure on parking and public transport. In light of this a special meeting of the Transport Plan Working Group and Town Centre Working Group took place to look at how to make this possible in Thame. A proposal will follow. Previous work to improve the wayfinding around our town so that it is easier to find your way when walking will also be brought forward to explore how to implement it as soon as possible.
  • Social distancing around the Co-op and bus stop outside it is proving difficult so more work will take place to identify solutions here in the short term. Stickers will also be laid at payment machines at car parks and around the entrance to the public toilets to support social distancing in these areas.

Take a look at our full action plan (with details of action completed).

Date posted: Thursday 9 July 2020