Opinion : Where will you do your Christmas shopping this year?

I shall soon have to buy Christmas gifts for my friends.

Christmas seems to have crept up on me this year, indeed yours truly was shocked to discover there are just over three weeks left until Christmas.

There are not that many friends whom presents are needed for but my good self will make the effort all the same.

Of course traipsing around the shops can be quite tedious. However this year, for the first time ever, my good self is not going to get any presents from Wycombe.

No, this year I’m going to Marlow to visit the shops there.

Why you may ask is Wycombe’s most prolific blogger and champion of the town turning his back on Wycombe?

Well, there’s a simple answer. I don’t feel safe shopping in Wycombe.

Only the other weekend yours truly happened to be in the Frogmoor area on a Saturday afternoon. There I was walking along when a man staggered from the doorway of a shop holding a tin of beer in his hand. Naturally your humble servant crossed over the road to avoid the drunkard.

Wycombe is not the town it once was.

White Hart street has been infiltrated by buskers and tramps who have literally made it their home.

Frogmoor is frequented by drunkards and other trouble causing yobbos.

Children buzz around Church Street on skateboards while youngsters on bicycles ride around pestering pedestrians, usually doing ‘wheelies’ with the front wheel of their bicycle off the ground.

It’s a waste of time visiting the Desborough Road area since the re-arrangement of the roads killed off the lively nature of that part of town.

So, after taking a step back and thinking very carefully, this year all my Christmas shopping is going to be done in Marlow.

Have you been to Marlow recently? It’s good there. The town has lots of high class shops, many of which are run by independent traders.

In Marlow you can walk around without fear of being serenaded by a tramp playing a harmonica. There are no children rushing around on skateboards and what’s more Marlow doesn’t have a problem with prostitution unlike the Desborough Road area of High Wycombe.

If long standing residents, like my good self, are turning their backs on Wycombe what hope is there for the town?

Wycombe has such potential yet the scum bags and undesirables are seemingly allowed to run amok in the town centre thus driving out the decent people.

There are laws in place to tackle the problems Wycombe faces yet they are seemingly never enforced. This is a dreadful shame which ultimately will surely lead to the demise of the town?

When people go out to spend their hard earned money they don’t want abuse and harassment from yobbos. They want a pleasant atmosphere to do their shopping.

I wonder how many people feel the same as me?

Where will you do your Christmas shopping this year?

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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