Death threats to show ground secretary ‘unacceptable’

THE man who took the booking from the organisation responsible for the controversial ‘Light and Life’ Gipsy Chuch convention on Thame Show Ground last week, has received death threats, it was revealed at last night’s Thame Town Council Meeting (15/08)

Image courtesy of the Light and Life church

This news came during the answer to a question from Cllr Peter Lambert, to Cllr Ann Midwinter, who is a Director of the Thame and District Agricultural Association who own the land. The Mayor, Cllr Tom Wyse, had just thanked the police for doing ‘an excellent job with limited resources’ when Cllr Peter Lambert asked Cllr Midwinter: “Can we expect an apology from the TAA to the people of Thame who were affected?”

She replied: “The booking was taken in all good faith two months before the event and the elder of the church had been in touch the police as well. So all seemed above board; so the police too were ‘caught on the hop’. Nobody could have known just how big the influx would be; people came from all over, including France and Spain. The problems caused have been hysterical and exaggerated, and Chris Parker, TAA’s Secretary has been the subject of much verbal abuse on social media and has even received death threats. That is unacceptable.”

‘God-fearing people’

“The difficulties started on the Friday (August 4) with traffic jams, when the Sheep Fair farmers were all trying to leave the site as the travellers were trying to get in,” she explained. “As I became aware of the reported incidents, I personally went over to the show ground because I felt guilty, and met one of their elders, Mr Stevens. These were God-fearing people though he admitted that some there were not; some of the trouble-makers were not attached to the Convention he told me, but parked somewhere else and were ‘just taking the micky’.

“A ‘Billy Graham’ type minister came three times to preach at the convention and I’m sure that our church ministers would be delighted if their services were that full! As promised they did leave the site very tidy, though it’s very muddy.”

Thame businesses have benefited

Cllr Midwinter said that the takings of Thame businesses, the shops and the hotels etc, went up while the visitors were in town. “I was told that thousands of pounds worth of stuff had been stolen so I went round to the shops, including the Esso garage and asked. Not true!”

She added: “This booking was taken in good faith and I see no reason why our Chairman, Andew Duffey, should have to apologise.

‘No smoke without fire’

Cllr Lambert responded: ” He’s the Chairman. It’s his responsibility. Once the numbers became apparent, someone should have thought ‘we need more security; we need more toilets. The driving was particularly appalling. As for local businesses, the kebab van was shaken backwards and forwards and closed for safety reasons. I had to lock my pub door and lost £1,000 in revenue. There’s ‘no smoke without fire’ and people were scared to go out. I personally got verbally abused on my way to this very council chamber last Tuesday. There was definitely an element that were not ‘God-fearing’.

“We want a simple apology whether or not the booking was taken in good faith and the TAA taken by surprise.”

Vice Chair says ‘sorry’

Cllr Midwinter then asked Cllr David Bretherton, who is Vice Chair of the TAA, whether he had been over to see what what going on and whether he was going to apologise. He replied that he did not visit the site, and was sorry about what happened over there. “There has been a lot of hysteria,” he said. “A lot did not happened but some did, and I will talk with the Chairman. But nothing could have been done in preparation.”

‘No signs of mayhem’

Cllr Helena Fickling then spoke of her experience. “I came into Thame and I saw no signs of mayhem. I do know about the complaints about the showers at the Thame Leisure Centre, but what happened up there is inevitable when you have a lot of people camping. I don’t think you can blame the people organising the event.”

Cllr Dyer concluded the discussion with: “It’s all over now. Thame is back to normal. I accept that there were problems with gate-crashers. We believed that we lived in nice community, but the levels of intolerance and prejudice was appalling. So an equal apology needs to come from those feeding the prejudices.”