High Wycombe will NOT get its own council as Tories vote against 60 per cent of town

High Wycombe will not be given its own town council after Conservative Buckinghamshire councillors torpedoed a last-ditch bid to set up a new parish-level authority.

The latest vote means that the governance of the ‘unparished area of High Wycombe’ will not change, and that the town will continue to be represented by its town committee, community board, and charter trustees.

Tory councillors voted to keep Wycombe’s governance arrangements as they were during a meeting of Buckinghamshire Council’s standards and general purposes committee on Tuesday, September 10, afternoon.

The vote came after the 11 Tories defeated an amendment to give Wycombe its own town council, which was proposed by Liberal Democrat councillor Steven Lambert and seconded by independent councillor Stuart Wilson.

The committee’s decision still needs to be agreed by full council, but effectively seals the fate of a years-long campaign by Wycombe residents, councillors, former mayors and others to set up a town council in a bid to give local people a greater say on decision-making in the area.

The Tory-dominated committee’s decision goes against the wishes of 60 per cent of Wycombe residents, who voted for a town council during an eight-week consultation between February and April this year.

Only 2,532 of 55,125 eligible voters took part in the consultation – just 4.6 per cent of the total electorate.

Those in favour of a town council mentioned key themes such as local decision-making, representation, improving the town and community engagement.

Meanwhile, the 35 per cent of respondents who voted to retain Wycombe’s existing governance arrangements spoke of the additional costs of a town council, the additional layer of bureaucracy it would bring and the ‘unclear benefits’ it would provide.

During the consultation, residents were also asked about the costs of a town council, with 43 per cent saying they were ‘willing to pay’ for the new authority and 46 per cent saying they were ‘unwilling to pay’.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Cllr Lambert kicked off the debate by noting that the bid to get Wycombe its own town council had come about through the efforts of Councillor Julia Wassell and others who organised petitions on the subject in 2019 under the former Wycombe District Council.

Cllr Lambert then proposed his amendment, arguing that the council’s working group on the community governance review of Wycombe should listen to the 60 per cent majority.

He told meeting: “We are significantly, in my view, letting down the people of Wycombe for self-determination and governance. And we are doing it for political expediency.

“I am not stupid. I can see the majority in this room and in this council. This was never going to be a promise in my view that was going to be delivered for the people of Wycombe.”

He added: “The report is interesting. The summary and conclusion go against every democratic principle and policy we should hold dear as an authority. In my view we are using and abusing that power over the people of Wycombe.”

Conservative councillor Tony Green then responded to Lambert’s arguments, branding his amendment that sided with the 60 per cent ‘ludicrous and anti-democratic’.

He said: “Cllr Lambert shows his disdain for democracy by suggesting that High Wycombe should be parished simply because he believes that it should.”

The Tory then claimed his Lib Dem colleague ‘did not care’ what the people of Wycombe wanted, with Cllr Green pointing out that he was a resident and councillor of Wycombe, whereas Cllr Lambert is based in Aylesbury.

Cllr Lambert replied: “My character and knowledge of the area should not be for discussion.”

After this, Cllr Stuart Wilson listed the very low turnouts of the council’s other consultations and pointed out that they were not simply ignored as he said the Wycombe Town Council one was.

He then stressed that the 60 per cent who voted for a town council should not be disregarded and that they were representative of the town.

He said: “It is statistically significant at a 99 per cent level of confidence that the majority of people in High Wycombe that responded to this consultation want a town council. That is not a matter of debate. That is a statistical fact.”