Archive

  • Learning about the thin line between thrill and kill

    PERSUADING teenagers that they are not immortal can sometimes be a challenging task for a driving instructor. The effervescence of youth does not sit well with the restraint and responsible attitude required for safe driving, which is perhaps partly

  • Buy today, don’t delay, agents advise after Labour win

    "The period of uncertainty has been removed hopefully we can get back to normal and enjoy a good spring and summer market," declared Mark Hayward, Bucks chairman of the National Association of Estate Agents, as Tony Blair posed with his family on the

  • Hostel up for sale

    A Privately-run hostel for the homeless opposite Wycombe railway station is up for sale. London agent GVA Grimley is inviting offers for the property with planning permission for its present use "as a residential hostel providing short-term accommodation

  • 05-1222 P16

    Bucks Free Press snapper Anita Ross-Marshall took this picture at the charter fair in Princes Risborough on Saturday, May 7. If you would like a copy of this picture, please use the picture order form on page 14 and quote reference number 05-1222 P16

  • Ferret and chips on increase

    Welcome to the May edition of Ask the Vet. This column aims to give people the chance to write in and ask for answers to questions that they may feel will be of benefit to other readers or to share comments or interesting cases with our readers. If

  • VE Day

    Sheila Webb, Chesham. There's singing and there's dancingAt the party in our streetIt's springtime here in LondonAnd it's such a special treatThe bunting's gently flappingLovely colours in a rowI'm all dressed up in my Sunday bestWith my hair tied

  • Ode to Peace

    Betty Winch, Marlow. Was it sixty years ago,We gathered round the radio,To hear those words so loud and clear,"War is over peace is here."No more war planes overhead,We could sleep safely in our bed.No more blackout blinds at night,To keep out every

  • Memories

    Marion Hayers, aged 76, Ash Close, Walters Ash. A song on the radio, an old film on TV A black and white snapshot of a school friend and meStart a trip of nostalgia, the memories flood inSunday night pictures then quite a sin.Our hair up in sweeps

  • Going that extra mile

    TELEVISION presenter Nick Knowles is urging everybody across south Bucks to take part in Macmillan Cancer Relief's Miles Challenge. From May 22-29 people are encouraged to take up a mile-related challenge to help raise money for vital cancer care services

  • Winning fans train with the Wanderers

    TWO football fanatics were put through their paces by Wycombe Wanderers after they won a competition to train with the club for a day. The competition was run by the Free Press together with the sponsors of Wanderers, Loans.co.uk. Ryan Connolly, 19,

  • Generations join together to mark VE Day anniversary

    Young and old came together across Buckinghamshire to commemorate the 60-year anniversary of VE Day. Members of the Royal British Legions around the county held parties over the weekend to remember the millions who sacrificed their life and suffered

  • When ‘rights’ seem to be wrong

    You'll like this one, dear sane reader. A young lady friend took some children into a pub in Marlow for lunch. One of the children wanted a baked potato with cold baked beans. A simple enough request, you would have thought. However, my friend was told

  • Close to dangers

    I AM writing in response to PD Somerville's criticism of my On The Road column in which I pointed out that driving near home can be dangerous because motorists can switch off when in familiar territory. He argues that the fact that many accidents happen

  • Free to travel

    I AM a disabled person (I suffer from mental illness), and I could not cope in London without my Freedom Pass, for free travel. Therefore, I am pained and shocked that the miserly council in High Wycombe is not so generous to the disabled and the elderly

  • Toilets close

    IT is astonishing how a district council so intent on renewing the Beaconsfield old town roads and pavements, and on aquiring new offices, can have the blind nerve to close all the public toilets in Beaconsfield new town (on cost grounds) at great emotional

  • Better places

    WORKING in West Wycombe I saw that the polling station was at the village hall and not the school. I have voted in Marlow at Holy Trinity School. With education top of most people's list of worries, I fail to see why Liston Hall, Court Gardens or one

  • Lords helped

    AFTER every General Election there are complaints that our electoral system is unfair, and then there are calls for some form of proportional representation. However there is also for us all that other perennial problem, the unelected House of Lords.

  • Letting Tory in

    MAY I thank all the people of the Booker, Cressex and Sands division of the county council elections who took the time to come out and vote on May 5. May I especially thank who voted for me and the Labour Party. In wishing the new county councillor

  • Morris dancers

    ALTHOUGH I cannot tell you the names of the Morris Dancers pictured in the May 7 Free Press, I would suggest it may be the Whitchurch group, from Bucks. Their present members will be dancing at St Mary and St George Church's May Fayre in Rutland Avenue

  • Macmillan aid

    MY name is Miles the Mouse and I'm the event mascot for the Macmillan Miles Challenge, supported by npower. I am calling everyone in south and central Buckinghamshire to sign up to complete a mile-related challenge! The event is between May 22 and 29

  • MP's thanks

    MAY I, through your letters page, thank everyone who voted for me in the election last week and in particular my magnificent team of supporters who helped me canvass every area in Chesham and Amersham. May I also thank the returning officer and his team

  • The volunteers

    I WOULD like to thank everyone in Bucks who volunteered during the fourth month ofthe Year of the Volunteer 2005. April was Justice Month and across the country over 80 projects attracted new volunteers and celebrated the contribution made by more than

  • Thanks to all

    I AM sure you would have already received a report about the Marlow 5 running event on Sunday, May 8 but I think the volunteers who gave up their time to stage the event are worth a mention in the way of a big "Thank You". Members of Handycross gave

  • Council caller

    I WAS, on the morning of May 3, afforded a revealing glimpse of the attitude of the officers (and perhaps of the members) of Wycombe District Council to the old persons living in their fiefdom, and of the degree of competence of those officers. I was

  • Always read

    I ALWAYS ensure that the Mann on Friday column in the Free Press is always read, even if I have little time to read anything else. I do not always agree with his views although usually I do and I do not always agree with his way of putting his views

  • Looking ahead

    NOW that all the general and local election brouhaha is subsiding maybe our town/district/county councils in Bucks can settle down and do some perceptive, visionary thinking about the future. For instance, is it sensible just to let the district grow

  • Mann's moans

    BY all means allow the Free Press columnist Charles Mann to remain in post, but let us have a little more thanks, praise and general good cheer. There is enough misery around, and so let us read something good when we open our local paper. I have often

  • For New Labour, read New Dialect

    IN the end, it was the voices that decided the general election. Michael Howard lost because of his weird pronunciation. His quaint way must have put loads of electors off, because no one modern speaks like what he does. Well, perhaps the dialect

  • Redgrave rows again

    SIR Steve Redgrave stepped onto a competitive boat last week for the first time since he won his record-breaking fifth Olympic gold medal. The Marlow Bottom hero joined his Sydney Olympic teammates Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster on

  • Vision for future tackles concerns

    The Chiltern Community Partnership has launched its 2020 Vision to address key issues on the district's future. The vision is part of a scheme that is geared towards highlighting public concerns for the Chilterns during the next 15 years. In response

  • Devoted Bob honoured at first People’s Award

    DEVOTED community volunteer Bob Fish has landed the top prize at Chesham's first People's Award for donating seven half-days a week to charity. The awards, set up by Chesham's mayor Cllr Mohammed Bhatti, and sponsored by the Free Press, celebrate outstanding

  • Widower takes leap for charity

    A RETIRED widower from Marlow is preparing to do a parachute jump at the age of 64 to raise money for the charity that helped her husband through cancer. Wendy Smith, of Deanfield Close, is choosing to do the jump on behalf of the Iain Rennie Hospice

  • Sports gala being held

    BUDDING David Beckhams and wannabe Jonny Wilkinsons who hail from Cookham are busy limbering up for one of the summer's most prestigious sporting events. The Thames Valley Youth Games will see talented footballers and rugby players joining other young

  • Era ends as veteran ex-mayor loses seat

    OUSTED Lib Dem county councillor Maurice Oram, described the Tory onslaught in Marlow as a "very difficult obstacle to overcome" after Conservatives took both seats at the county elections. Veteran Mr Oram, who has been a county councillor for the past

  • Evening of song

    AN informal evening of song, opera and operetta is taking place at All Saints Church, The Causeway, Marlow, on Thursday, May 19, at 8pm. Admission is free. PUPILS at Great Marlow School during the 60s, 70s and 80s are invited to an "old school" disco

  • Illustrated talk

    MARLOW Archaeological Society is presenting an illustrated talk on Wednesday, May 18, at the Church Hall, the Causeway, Marlow, at 8pm. The topic will be "The Lough Brickland Discovery" by Kevin Beachus, who will be talking about the Neolithic and

  • Schoolgirl joins fight against Waitrose plans

    A NINE-year-old girl has joined those fighting plans for a new Waitrose store in Marlow. Helen Record has written a protest letter calling for the application to be scrapped and more than a dozen classmates have signed it in support. Helen, from Marlow

  • Noise level ‘unbearable’ after trees get the chop

    A FLACKWELL Heath man whose house overlooks the M40 says work being carried out by the Highways Agency has turned his life into a living nightmare. John Heygate-Brown, 58, could not believe his eyes when he turned up to his Treadaway Hill hproperty to

  • High Wycombe roadworks latest...

    FROM this week Desborough Road will be closed to through traffic for a month. Works carried out include a sewer connection. It is part of work at the British Gas site on the south side of Desborough Road and is not related to the town centre redevelopment

  • Feast of Eden set to transform area

    THE new Eden development is on land which forms a triangle between Abbey Way, Oxford Road, Bridge Street, Lilys Walk and Desborough Road. It will have two anchor stores a 140,000 sq ft House of Fraser and a 110,000 sq ft Marks and Spencer ten large

  • Wycombe

    EDEN is just part of more than £500million worth of investment that will be coming into High Wycombe over the next few years, transforming the town and enlarging and unifying the town centre. When all is complete people should see the end of Abbey Way

  • Eden is name of town’s new shopping paradise

    HIGH Wycombe's most closely guarded secret the name of the town's long-awaited £185million shopping and leisure centre was revealed last week. The announcement of the name, Eden, took place at the annual meeting of Wycombe District Council,last Monday

  • Scores of workers face chop

    MORE than 200 jobs could be axed in the area after two companies announced redundancies and another told its staff that their offices could relocate. Business Information giant D&B have announced it is looking to make around 60 redundancies next month