Village's only coffee shop closed Mondays and Tuesdays, Thames Valley Police ‘on high alert’ for civil unrest
Norsk, the village's sole coffee shop, has confirmed it will remain closed on Mondays and Tuesdays “for the foreseeable future,” a policy residents have described as “frankly dangerous” and which Thames Valley Police, in a statement seen by this newspaper, have described as “a credible risk factor.”
A police spokesperson confirmed that a Public Order Support Unit, normally reserved for football fixtures and royal visits, has been placed on standby in the village for both days, “purely as a precaution,” following what the force described as “escalating tension” outside the locked premises on three consecutive Tuesdays. “We're not saying it will happen,” the spokesperson added. “We're saying we'd rather have the vans here than not.”
“By eleven o'clock on Monday I genuinely couldn't tell you my own name,” said one resident, who described shouting at a printer that was “not, in hindsight, doing anything wrong.” “I'm not proud of it. But I also don't think anyone can say, hand on heart, that they'd have behaved differently after thirty-six hours without a flat white.”
Norsk's owner defended the closures as necessary for “work-life balance,” dismissing reports of unrest as “a small number of very loud people who need to sort themselves out,” while confirming the shop would remain closed regardless of any police presence, planned or otherwise.
Several residents have been spotted driving the nine minutes to Thame for coffee, an act one described as “a betrayal, but a necessary one, and frankly the least of what I've betrayed this week.” A small black market in instant coffee sachets is understood to have developed outside the village hall, prices fluctuating by the hour.
Police confirmed there is, “at this stage,” no need to escalate beyond high alert, though officers would be “equipped for the full range of outcomes” should Wednesday's reopening not go smoothly either.