WYCOMBE’S museum should be located in Marlow to attract the maximum number of visitors, according to a High Wycombe-based councillor.

Cllr Roger Collomb spoke out about the centre after an agreement was made to keep the museum - which falls inside his own ward - at its original location on Priory Avenue.

And the Independent councillor insisted at this week’s Full Council meeting that only the popular tourist town could pull in the necessary crowds to the attraction.

He said: "There are four types of clientele for the museum - online it doesn’t matter where you are, and there are only three schools within walking distance so they will come in coaches anyway.

"There are locals, but they do not make up a large proportion of the clientele. But then there are tourists.

"I remember going into Marlow to survey the opinion of local people and it was difficult to find anyone who wasn’t visiting. Marlow is the perfect place to locate it."

He added that with the new sports centre at Handy Cross underway, Marlow’s swimming pool at Court Garden may eventually become obsolete and could be used to house a museum.

However, Cllr Collomb’s colleagues were not convinced, with WDC leader dismissing the idea due to the costs involved.

The Marlow councillor added: "It might be a good idea but those residents in Princes Risborough in the north might not agree with you.

"Marlow is not in the centre of the district, although I agree it is a very beautiful part of the district."

Plans to relocate the museum to a dedicated part of WDC’s offices on Queen Victoria Road were shelved after uncertainty over the long-term future of the council’s office complex.

WDC will also continue with the transfer of the museum to the trust, which will take over the day-to-day running of the district's history centre in 2015.

This would save the authority money and also enable the trust to apply for grant funding streams not available to a council-owned museum.

Cllr Tony Green spoke in favour of keeping the museum at its current location, adding the grounds were well used and the nearest thing Wycombe has to a city square park.

Marlow already has a museum, based at Court Garden in Higginson Park, which run entirely by volunteers.

Its current exhibition, ‘The Changing Face of Marlow', began this month.