Opinion : Does the Wycombe District really need 10,925 new homes?

Did you see the article that appeared in the news section of this site a few days ago entitled ‘Wycombe District Local Plan sets target of 10,925 new homes within Wycombe District‘?

Apparently it seems that we will be needing 10,925 new homes built within the Wycombe District up to the year 2033. It would have been more but due to a shortage of available land Aylesbury Vale District Council has offered to accommodate the shortfall of 2,275 homes that wouldn’t fit in Wycombe.

Over half the housing provision will be in and around High Wycombe and roughly a quarter in Princes Risborough.

By George! If all those homes are going to be built in Wycombe our town will no longer be a ‘quaint market town’ indeed sleepy old Wycombe will surely be turned into a city?

But where are all the people going to come from to live in the new homes? With Brexit trundling along like a tricycle with square wheels and the UK likely to slam the door on the free movement of citizens from the EU the occupants of all the new homes are unlikely to come from Europe?

Amazingly there would have been more homes built in our District but due to a shortage of land our chums in Aylesbury are going to build 2,275 homes so we don’t have to. All my good self can say to that is ‘Thank you suckers!’

Of course with an influx of new people the local infrastructure will need to be ramped up too. Ironically on Monday (25th September 2017) the powers that be are closing the George Street and Baker Street car parks resulting in a reduction of the number of parking spaces in the town.

Excellent more houses and fewer parking spaces in the town centre, surely that’s the perfect recipe for success?

Just think of all those new homes producing waste to be carted to the dump at Booker, more people needing drinking water from the underground aquifers that supply Wycombe and more people needing employment too.

I wonder how many of the new homes will be bought as ‘buy-to-lets’ to generate income for the owners at extortionate rents rather than being in the hands of the families who desperately need the housing?

Why on earth are new homes even being thought about when still no use has been found for the magnificent old library building in Queen Victoria Road? It’s disgusting that new homes are even being considered while established buildings in the town centre are being left to rot.

Rather than lining the pockets of the housing developers and builders why not make use of the buildings the County already has?

For example why not unify all the local authorities, make Wycombe the County town of Buckinghamshire and put the headquarters of the resulting unitary authority in Wycombe. That way the magnificent brutalist (‘former’) County Hall building in Aylesbury could be turned into a high rise block of flats and save the need to waste land building so many new homes.

In my opinion the Wycombe District doesn’t need all these proposed new homes.

What Wycombe really needs are new factories, offices and businesses to give employment and a proper income to the people who already live here. By that I don’t mean more of the duff minimum rate jobs the town currently has in shops and fast food restaurants.

Wycombe does not need new homes, there are more urgent things that need doing in the town first.

What do you think?

My blogs are published every Tuesday and Friday evening around 8.00pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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