‘Hypocrisy’: High Wycombe will not be given own council despite majority backing move

The decision not to give High Wycombe its own town council despite a majority of people backing the move is ‘hypocrisy’, campaigners have said.

Conservative Buckinghamshire councillors voted to keep High Wycombe ‘unparished’ during a full council meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

The decision came despite 60 per cent of people saying they wanted a town council, with 35 per cent against it, in a consultation that received 1,517 responses.

Critics have now pointed to what they say are the ‘double standards’ of the Bucks councillors who chose deny Wycombe a town council while sitting on their own town councils from Beaconsfield to Buckingham.

The former mayor of Wycombe Khalil Ahmed claimed that the town’s residents had ‘seen firsthand the hypocrisy of the councillors they elected to represent them’.

He told the Bucks Free Press: “Some are content to serve as parish or town councillors elsewhere but refuse to grant the same privilege to Wycombe.”

Another former Mayor, Trevor Snaith, added: “A group of former mayors, including myself and Khalil, engaged with over 6,000 people who expressed their desire for a town council. Yet, the Tories have rejected this, denying Wycombe the right to establish its own town council.”

Fellow campaigner for a town council Peter Cartwright, another former Wycombe mayor, and ‘honorary burgess’, claimed that the community governance review carried out in 2019 should have been acted upon.

He said: “We will seek advice on challenging Buckinghamshire for failing to honour the will of the people.”

Ahmed, who chairs the High Wycombe Town Council Steering Group, which includes cross-party members and dignitaries, added: “This is far from done yet.”

Emma Reynolds, Wycombe’s new Labour MP, also condemned the result of the vote, pointing out that all other major towns in Bucks had their own parish-level council.

She told the Free Press: “I am disappointed by Buckinghamshire Council’s decision to deny High Wycombe’s local residents a town council and a greater say over local issues and developments.

“It is clearly unfair that High Wycombe is the only major town in Buckinghamshire not to benefit from a town council.”

Parish and town councils have a wide range of responsibilities which can include things like managing community buildings, open spaces, allotments, play areas, street lighting and bus shelters.

In the consultation on whether Wycombe should be given its own authority of this level, 43 per cent of respondents said they were prepared to pay for a new town council, while 46 per cent said they were not.

But the results of the consultation were dismissed by the Conservative councillor Tony Green, who represents the Wycombe ward of Terriers and Amersham Hill.

During Wednesday’s meeting, he pointed out how councillors supporting the creation of a town council were relying on the consultation responses of just 2.7 per cent of people out of an eligible electorate of 55,125.

He told the chamber: “We know from the figures that only 2.7 per cent could be bothered to say they want to change it, which is a fair reasonable assumption that everyone else is happy with what they gave got.

“To say that 60 per cent want change on a turnout like that is ludicrous.”