Opinion : Does High Wycombe need a Town Council?

As everyone knows the axe is looming over the current two-tier structure of local government in Buckinghamshire.

It’s highly likely that soon there will be just one municipal authority looking after services like waste collection, road maintenance and the like.

Should Wycombe be controlled completely from afar, such as from Aylesbury, there are those who say that our town will loose the ‘local’ touch and things will be worse for it. Maybe they are right?

Some say that a ‘Town Council’ is the way forward for Wycombe. Comprised of ‘Town Councillors’ it would have the ability to organise events, promote the town and take on a role overseeing things that matter locally in the town.

Indeed Marlow currently has a Town Council with twelve town councillors. It looks after things such as the town clock, street furniture, amenity areas, play areas, the War Memorial and devolved services from Bucks County Council and Wycombe District Council.

My good self visits Marlow regularly having giving up on Wycombe due to fear of crime, the high number of street beggars, poor range of shops and other turn-off factors.

Marlow is, in my opinion, far better than Wycombe. The town is better presented, better preserved, better looked after and generally it’s a nicer place to be.

Wycombe was nice once but the town has been let go. Nowhere typifies the problems of Wycombe more than the Frogmoor area. Now frequented by drunken yobbos, paved over in bland concrete and plagued by pigeons it has become a no-go area for many particularly since an innocent person was recently killed there in an acid attack.

Then there is the Desborough Road area of Wycombe. Once full of lovely shops nowadays fast food takeaways are prevalent and some shops even have what appear to be ‘look outs’ standing at the doorway presumably to alert those inside should an officer of the law pass by.

At night the Desborough area has suffered problems with prostitutes, drug dealers and other undesirables resulting in a Public Space Protection Order being introduced.

Many people, such as my good self, think modern day Wycombe is a shambles, a disgrace and a place that people just don’t want to be.

In my opinion the sooner those who allowed the town go down the pan are unable to do further damage the better. The re-organisation of local government in Buckinghamshire may be Wycombe’s salvation if it frees us from the shackles of the past and, for yours truly, it can’t come soon enough.

But would a Town Council be good for Wycombe?

Well, personally your humble servant thinks it would, but only if those who created the mess of modern day Wycombe don’t see it as their duty to stand for election to a new Town Council and carry on the destruction of Wycombe with yet more daft ideas and plans.

In my opinion any proposed Town Council for Wycombe should comprise entirely of people who want Wycombe to succeed rather than those who see the Town Council as an opportunity to ‘do their civic duty’ in the hope of a mention in the next Honours List and a trip to The Palace to meet Her Majesty to get their gong.

The last thing Wycombe needs is a Town Council that suddenly decides to undertake daft and crazy plans such as the construction of a stadium in Booker, a  transport ‘Masterplan’ or the driving of a path through the magnificent Library Gardens.

Our town needs the rejuvenation of Frogmoor, a clampdown on the number of fast food shops, a halt in the demolition of factories to build houses and more community events to bring the people of the town back together.

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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