Christian Convention ‘..no rumours or Chinese whispers’
On 12/08/2017 At 3:06 am
Category : Missed a ThameNews story?, Thame Community Forum, Thame news
Responses : 7 Comments
Dear Editor – The incidents associated with the presence of travellers on the show ground are replicating those experienced by others elsewhere in the country and reported on Google web sites. The claim by the Thame Agricultural Association that a ‘good faith’ booking was taken after background checks had been carried out begs the question; why didn’t they seek the opinion of the authority where the Darlington group held their last gathering?
Having become aware of the calamity that they had brought upon themselves and upon the neighbourhood, what measures did members of the TAA take in order to safeguard their assets? I have a grandstand view of activities around the entrance to the site and I certainly haven’t seen evidence of containment there.
The individuals purporting to be traffic controllers appear to have been drawn from amongst the travellers. They initiated one or two spectacular traffic jams and made no effort to curtail the dirt track-like activities of numerous drivers as they snaked recklessly up and down the driveway at high speed, generating clouds of dust that drifted into the houses bordering the site. The driveway quickly became severely rutted and as a result of heavy rainfall, became a channel of mud carried down to the B4012.
I witnessed a 4×4 being driven out of the driveway straight across the two lanes of the B4012 and up on to the grass verge on the opposite side, before snaking at speed along the grass to the entrance to Cromwell Avenue then turning sharply into the traffic flow and back into the Show Ground driveway. This reckless and quite pointless action drew no comment from the ‘traffic controllers’. The grass verge which is used by walkers and joggers and which has always been carefully tended by council groundsme, was taken over by the travellers for parking cars and lorries and there was even a woman attempting to sell clothing to the travellers from the boot of her car. The area gradually became devastated.
There was a constant flow of vehicles on to and off the site from six in the morning until well after midnight when the noise and the blazing headlights were a great deterrent to sleep.
Each morning we were treated to a display of litter picking around the entrance to the driveway, though in truth there is little in evidence there. However there was no attempt to extend the search around the corner into Cromwell Avenue which is the route followed into town by many pedestrians from the site. The entire exercise seemed hypocritical when one considers the lack of concern shown for the local environment as a whole by the visitors to the site.
No doubt it will cost the TAA a considerable sum of money to restore the Show Ground to a satisfactory state for the {Towersey} festival in a couple of weeks time. My concern is that the cost of restoring the land adjoining the site should not be borne by the local residents. The damage done can be attributed to people who came to the site with the blessing of the TAA and surely it must, therefore, be the responsibility of the TAA to pay to put it right.
I wish to assure the TAA that my comments contain no rumours or Chinese whispers; they relate to things that I have witnessed myself. Much of the evidence was there for all to see.
Harry Burden
Thame
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This discussion string ends here. Everything there is to say about this event has already been said else where on social media and I think that most us in the town now want to draw a line under this incident. Lessons have been learnt I’m sure and we have two great events to look forward to on the showground, Towersey Festival and the food festival. Let’s now move on.
Editor
If TAA was informed of the suspected numbers this convention was likely to attract as I am sure they where otherwise so large a venue would not have been needed then from the information the TAA themselves provided on the Spotted Thame fb page this event had been fully signed off on it is not the fault of the conventions organisers who in good faith organised the event the best anyone can do when planning a event is approach the venue operators state what the venue will be used for and accept the decision of the venue operators has to the agreeing or not to the use of the venue .I myself live in Oxfordshire and at this time of year we have very many festivals that cause quite a lot of problems because of litter alcohol drugs and anti social behavior people gaining access without paying by climbing over fences ect theses are for the most part not even held on or in designated event areas and of course there’s the usual sea of mud and litter especially bad if the weather happend as at the time of this convention to be extremely wet . The extreme verbal reaction of some locals on social media only for example you need look no further than the fb page mentioned above as only served as a reminder to the Gypsy/Traveler community how unprepared the more conservative and let’s say less cosmopolitan members society are and hopefully they should be left to the smaller less controversial events only ie the odd country show ect I will however say some of the remarks about driving up and down the venue and out onto the roads adjacent to showground and the excess of mud and some litter is a little mean minded due to the weather at the time of the event and a lot of youngsters gatherd together and apologies for the litter but there was and I am going to be truthful here not Chinese whispers out and out lies and unfounded rumours being spread by a few in the local community theses were the more colourful claims of trees being chopped down crime rate soaring and my personal favorite animal sacrifice the claims of wich are hysterical in both meanings of the word but one thing I am happy about is the realisation the rather extreme opinions of good proportion of Thames inhabitants I can only say that having lived in my rural area of Oxfordshire and being out and proud as to my own Romany heritage and living in a village where there has been a Gypsy community for over 50 years we at NOT demonized or regarded in the same way in fact we are welcomed and appreciated as part of a growing diverse community I for one will make sure never to even drive through Thame from now on as I believe there are certain areas in the southern states of the USA were opinions to people of certain ethnicity’s are just as narrow . Most of the accusations have been completely unfounded and I would love a complete and unbiased report by a completely independent body of all that took place at this event
My my my ,so up in arms about a grass verge, there was no thieving,no drugs no pedaphile ‘s no rapes ,but plenty of predgadist ,if this was Moslems or any other minority group,there wouldn’t be a word,,but this is still (as yet) a free country,and a Christian one ,and that is what this convention was about, but not a word about the faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ,of this gypsy camunity,sham on you’s all
Dear Editor,
I understand and sympathise with the good descent members of Thame who have truely been effected by the convention being held in their area.
However, Im sad to report that the FB group Spotted: Thame, is where the rumours have been spreading fast and actually it’s turned into some what of a witch hunt. It’s not a group for people to rise above, resolve and engage in an adult conversation. Please consider taking the time to read through their many offensive comments. The racism is truely horrendous! I have personally tried to engage with some of Thames members only to be blocked for writing the folowing:-
To the people of Thame,
Regarding the racist, derogatory and prejudice comments that have been made by some of the residents.
As in those that have made judgement of the entire GRT community and to those that use derogatory words to course offence.
Most understand that a person who has committed a crime is a criminal, due to their own actions! Not because of their race, religion, culture or ethnicity.
The same for any person/s who acts irresponsibly or is anti-social. Behaviours like this belong to the perpitrator and they should be held accountable not the entire race, ethnicity, culture or religion that the person/s belong to!
To clarify a “few” of the residents that have posted on this group have used derogatory and offensive words like gypo’s and pikeys. That terminology is unexseptable and it is a criminal offence.
No race ‘flag’ can be accused of being raised. When such comments are blatantly racist.
There’s also been Stereo-typing, generalising and narrow mindedness displayed on here. As well as a lot of false information being passed as fact!
No posts, that I have read, have I seen any from the GRT community defending criminality or anti-social behaviour.
If a person is an Irish Traveller or English Romani-Gypsy, Eastern European Roma, Christians or non-Christian, we are all still individuals and accountable “ONLY” for our own personal actions!
I presume there will be a multi agency meeting to review what happened – Town Council who seemed to be as surprised as the residents, police, fire and rescue (were they aware of the numbers shoehorned onto the site presumably with gas canisters in all caravans and numerous vehicles?) Were the police involved in approving the site security and traffic management? My understanding is that any large festival requires detailed planning and sign off but it feels like it was sadly lacking on this occasion. This CANNOT be allowed to happen again! And how will the results of any review (including any additional costs to the town for cleaning the streets (not the site!) policing, losses of local businesses) be shared with us?
Harry, I also witnessed the jams and destruction of the grass verge opposite the entrance to the field.
Not a single payment to rectify the damage around Thame come out of the public purse. The TAA & “Light & Life Church” holds responsibility.
Also, this whole incident has completely besmirched the name of a charming town in Teesside. The traveller group who have caused so much disturbance in the town have nothing to do with Darlington.
While TAA collect the rent, who pays for all the extra policing and other public costs this event incurred?