New town council plan to be rejected

Proposals to set up a town council in Wycombe are set to be rejected despite 60 per cent of people backing the plans.

A cross-party working group of councillors have recommended that Wycombe remains ‘unparished’ with its existing governance arrangements unchanged.

Their recommendation will be voted on by councillors on the standards and general purposes committee during a crunch meeting at 2pm on Tuesday, September 10.

Members of a steering group backing the creation of a ‘Wycombe Town Council’ have expressed their ‘disappointment’ with the recommendation but told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it was not a final decision.

In a joint statement from the group, former town mayors Khalil Ahmed, Trevor Snaith and Peter Cartwright, said: “It’s important to note that the outcomes from this working group are not final and can still be discussed and changed.”

The group have pointed out that Wycombe is one of the only towns in Buckinghamshire not to be represented by a parish-level council, which would be consulted on planning matters and responsible for things like benches, cemeteries, allotments and Christmas lights.

Campaigners for a town council claim it would give people a greater say over such local issues and how money is spent, however, the response rate to the council’s eight-week consultation, which saw 34,000 Wycombe households sent information packs, was very low.

Only 2,532 valid responses were received by the council – 4.6 per cent of the electorate of 55,125, who voted to either keep current arrangements or for a town council to be created.

Some 60 per cent voted for a council, with 35 per cent requesting things be left as they are and five per cent saying they ‘didn’t know’ or suggesting a different option.

Respondents were also asked whether they would be ‘willing to pay a precept to cover the running costs and local investment in a town council’.

To this question, 43 per cent of respondents said they would pay, while 46 per cent said they would not, with 11 per cent answering: “I don’t know.”

The question of whether people would pay for a town council was criticised by the trio of former mayors on the steering group.

They said: “One of the main concerns we have is with the wording of the consultation. The question asked of residents in the unparished area about whether they would be willing to pay for a Town Council seems odd.

“When the Aylesbury Town Council was created, this kind of question wasn’t raised, which makes the current inquiry feel inconsistent.”

Next week’s meeting will be held at The Oculus, Buckinghamshire Council, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury and will be available to watch here: https://buckinghamshire.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=351&MId=18995