Opinion : Is there an alternative to a Town Council in High Wycombe?

The dust is still settling following the wonderful news that the Government has given the green light to the abolition of the District Council in High Wycombe.

This will mean big changes to our town once a new Unitary Council is in place which will hopefully be some time around April 2020.

A few days ago an extremely well respected person in High Wycombe left a comment on the Wycombe Today Facebook page where a link to my last blog had been posted.

The comment pointed out that if the District Council in Wycombe disappears, and there is no Town Council in place, the position of the Mayor in Wycombe could be in jeopardy.

Wycombe has had Mayors from many hundreds of years, with the first mentioned in 1285 and the first we know by name being Roger Oughtred in 1302. It would be a dreadful shame for our town to lose its Mayor after so many years.

Personally yours truly thinks a Town Council would be good for Wycombe but, as explained in my blog recent blog entitled ‘Does High Wycombe need a Town Council?‘, I have concerns.

After looking at what the Town Council does in Marlow does it seems that several of their roles are already fulfilled by the BIDCo in High Wycombe, such as organising events, etc….

Remove the roles done by our BIDCo and Town Council in Marlow just seems to look after recreation grounds, cemeteries, play areas and the like which is something that surely something the enhanced purchasing power of a Unitary Authority should do with its ability to get value for money through contracting out the work on a large scale?

For a Town Council to work in Wycombe would it not have to take back the roles from the BIDCo thus making the BIDCo non-effective or at worst making it cease to exist?

To me it is beginning to seem there are too many obstacles for a Town Council to work properly in Wycombe unless you want to elect people to sit around just to organise contractors to cut grass and the like.

So what can be done?

Well, here’s my idea based only my, albeit limited, knowledge of the subject. For years Marlow has been controlled by the District Council in Wycombe so why not reverse that position of control? In my opinion the Town Council in Marlow does an excellent job so why not ask them to expand their remit to cover Wycombe?

Add just one Town Councillor (to serve in a non-executive capacity) to the Town Council in Marlow, to represent the Wycombe area, who could then act as the Wycombe Mayor. This would mean that the people of Wycombe could actually vote for their Mayor.

There would be no need for a Town Council in Wycombe and our town could avail itself of the same excellence as Marlow! No doubt Frogmoor would soon be turned into a nice place that people wanted to visit and the Desborough Road area would soon be cleaned up too.

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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