28th May 2026
Please see the below update from Thame Town Council:
Lidl, Aylesbury Road (P25/S3492/FUL)
Below is a brief update on the Lidl planning application.
- South Oxfordshire District Council – considering the application, including the recently submitted Biodiversity Net Gain assessment and metric, and responses received. A decision date has not yet been set.
- Thame Town Council – supports the application subject to outstanding matters being resolved.
- Highways – objection removed, subject to various conditions being met and Lidl providing a Construction Traffic Management Plan.
- Lead Local Flood Authority (OCC) – no objection, subject to planning conditions.
- District Drainage Team - awaiting information they have requested on surface water (rainfall) drainage.
- Updated responses are also awaited from the Environment Agency, who will be working to ensure flood risk is not increased elsewhere in Thame or downstream.
Battery Store, Howland Road (P26/S0864/FUL)
The application remains under consideration by the District Council, with a decision date not yet set. Around 25 letters of objection have been received from the public. The Town Council and Highways have also objected.
Enforcement
Since the Covid restrictions ended, the District Council’s Planning Enforcement Team have been busy catching up on cases across the District and their response time to complaints appears to be speeding up. Over the past year Enforcement have looked at potential breaches of planning control on land across Thame, including sites on our High Street, within businesses on industrial estates and even in our new housing estates.
An Enforcement officer is one of the very few people employed by a District Council who have the right to enter land, but only for the purpose of investigating planning matters. The first duty of the officer is to establish if it is in the public interest to pursue the matter further. If enforcement action is warranted, this will usually be carried out swiftly. Most breaches are resolved through resolution, where the officer will invite the party who committed the breach to correct the fault, or where not severe, submit a planning application to regularise it. Failure to address the matter can result in a range of actions being taken by the District Council, including the serving of stop or enforcement notices.
If you suspect a development has not been carried out according to plans, or if land or a building starts to be used in a very different way, you can report this as a potential breach yourself. An extension to a house being built much larger than planned may be obvious, but over the past few years the Government has introduced much flexibility in how land and buildings can be used. If you need help in working out if a breach has occurred, consider contacting the Town Council for help.
To report a potential breach we would always advise residents to contact Enforcement directly as this helps reduce delay during the investigation phase. Your name and details will never be made public. The Town Council will, however, report potential breaches if you feel uncomfortable doing so yourself.
Residents can report enforcement matters directly to the District Council online.
Planning Committee Meeting, 26 May 2026
The Committee reviewed planning applications; and agreed with Officer recommendations.
The Committee discussed and agreed proposed street names for submission to South Oxfordshire District Council for the new development off Causeway Close and Weavers Branch, drawing on Thame’s rich heritage of trades and archaeology. The submitted names offer a choice of local craft and trade themes and names inspired by local historic finds, reflecting the site’s long and diverse history.
The Committee noted the amended plans CM/0022/22 for an anaerobic digestion plant that would produce energy, including gas for the local grid. The application is outside the parish boundary, north of Long Crendon; highways are now satisfied with the amended proposals for the site’s traffic movements and hours of operation. This appears to answer the Town Council’s original concerns regarding highway safety.
The full minutes are available on the Town Council’s website.
