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Opinion : What do you think the chances are of a Town Council being created in High Wycombe?

| January 17, 2020

As anyone who lives in Wycombe knows there are certain things that need doing in the town yet they never seem to get done.

Just look at how Frogmoor has been allowed to degenerate with no apparent plan for rejuvenation.

Then there are the plans to re-open the River Wye in the town centre. It’s been talked about for years but can you see the river flowing in the Oxford Road area of the town centre yet? Um…. Nope!

Don’t forget the numerous buildings that have just been left to rot over the years such as the former bookshop building in White Hart Street, the former Collins House residential block in Desborough Road and the old library in Queen Victoria Road.

Regular readers will know that my good self often talks about the ‘stagnation setting in’ when it comes to High Wycombe indeed from my viewpoint Wycombe seems a town where inaction seems to be the way forward.

In my opinion the only things that do seem to be done make the town worse such as the dreadful ‘Masterplan’ that has ruined the road network in the town centre and the gigantic shopping centre without doors and a complete roof that killed off the High Street area of town eleven or so years ago.

You may have seen the article that appeared in the news section of this site recently headlined ‘Shadow Executive of the new Buckinghamshire Council defers decision on creating town council for High Wycombe‘.

So the decision on the Community Governance Review in High Wycombe has been deferred until the new municipal authority takes over on April Fools day 2020.

Once again another decision affecting High Wycombe has been put off, or ‘deferred‘ to use the official term. However their decision did recognise that ‘further consultation may be necessary‘.

Sadly this means the future of local community governance in High Wycombe may not be decided by elected representatives wholly elected by the residents of our town and instead elected representatives of other towns, sitting on the new unitary authority for the whole County, may have their say on how certain things in Wycombe are run.

Is it right that an elected representative from, say, Aylesbury should have a say on the future of local governance in High Wycombe?

While the United Kingdom is regaining independence and self determination by leaving the European Union it seems that exactly the opposite is happening in High Wycombe. Indeed good old High Wycombe appears to well on its way to being sucked into the Buckinghamshire Super Council with no hope of escape.

So do you think the great and the good at the soon to be created new overarching local authority will allow Wycombe to have a Town Council? In my opinion there is a danger the Community Governance review in Wycombe will just be kicked into the long grass over and over again eventually to be forgotten forever. Indeed why would a recently formed super council give up any of its newly found power or areas of jurisdiction?

At the moment my personal view is that there shouldn’t be a town council created in Wycombe at all as it would be just another layer of governance that could be done without.

Maybe in a couple of years if the new super authority gets fed up with looking after the menial things such as maintaining playgrounds, cutting verges or overseeing the towns allotments then a Town Council may be created in Wycombe, however to me that may still be very unlikely. Indeed a Town Council should only be created in Wycombe if a majority of people support the idea in a local referendum.

What do you think the chances are of a Town Council being created in High Wycombe?

What do you think?

My blogs are published regularly here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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