13th February 2025
Thame Town Council is delighted to announce that the town’s second Neighbourhood Plan (TNP2) was successfully adopted at referendum on Thursday 6 February 2025.
The single-question referendum asked residents: Do you want South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Thame to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?
The results were as follows:
– The number of votes cast in favour of YES – 2035 (89.14%)
– The number of votes cast in favour of NO – 248 (10.86%)
– Voter turnout was 22%
The result means that once the official adoption process by the Local Planning Authority has been completed, Thame’s new Neighbourhood Plan will have legal planning weight and will be used by the District and County Councils in determining planning applications in Thame, protecting the town’s unique character, heritage, and environment.
Thame Town Council would like to thank all those who contributed over the past four years to help shape Thame’s second Neighbourhood Plan. It took four consultations, more than 1,600 sets of comments, and an independent examination to get to referendum.
Thame Town Council’s Neighbourhood Planner, Graeme Markland, said, “Thame voted to adopt the revised Thame Neighbourhood Plan, TNP2. This means the policies within the Plan will be given full weight when SODC and Oxfordshire County Council decide on planning applications within Thame. It also means that Thame should remain protected from inappropriate housing development for the next five years.
“Not every Thame resident supported everything the Plan contains, and some may have preferred a different result. With a change in how development is looked upon at the national level and mindful of how Thame is a desirable location for both housing and employment development, the majority, however, clearly felt the Town was better off with TNP2 in place.”
Thame was one of the first communities in the country to adopt a Neighbourhood Plan. TNP1 was adopted in 2013 and has since been used as a model by other communities. Like the first Neighbourhood Plan, TNP2 aims to keep Thame as a compact market town with a close relationship with the open countryside around it.
