With all this worry about, no wonder I'm miserable
1:21pm Thursday 20th December 2007
SOMETIMES I feel like one of those little old men who wander up and down the High Street with a sign proclaiming: "The end of the world is nigh."
Perhaps I should make a New Year's Resolution to become more positive and to accept things on face value.
Perhaps I should cease to become a harbinger of doom and instead join hands with our lords and masters of the various local authorities, and we'd all have a nice cosy happier life.
Perhaps not.
A reader looking through our website emailed me this week to say that while our staff all look happy and contented in their contact photographs, my deputy editor and I appear thoroughly miserable.
Well, while I can't speak for deputy Sharon Walter, I can tell you now categorically: I am a misery.
It's probably built-in to my natural temperament, but it's also been allowed to mushroom out of all proportion by the things I have seen and written about as editor of the various local newspaper titles around here.
And, I have to say, that my gloominess is partly due to the fact I am worried about what's going to happen next year.
First obvious cause for concern is that Wycombe District Council is likely to whack up parking prices in the centre of High Wycombe in January.
I accept all the mitigation for this and am glad there will be very cheap car parks on the edge of town. But the fact remains that in the build-up to the Eden centre opening in March, existing traders are suffering quite badly.
At present, High Wycombe is not an attractive place to shop. I know that may sound as if I'm doing my hometown down, but the various construction works don't make for a compelling retail visit.
To then hike up parking prices while this is happening almost seems laughable. Except it's not funny for the traders trying to get by before the revolution in March.
Then there's the risible prospect of another bumper council tax rise come April. The county council is currently talking in the order of 4.5 per cent which is roughly in line with inflation - although did you get a 4.5 per cent pay increase? I doubt it.
Furthermore, to fund this, the county will probably also have to chop some services. Councillors blame the Government, which in turn blames the council. Which all makes me want to reach for the sick bag because in between the arguments it's us, the poor saps, who are getting whacked in the wallets.
I suppose 4.5 per cent isn't bad when you compare it with the 15 per cent hike of a few years ago.
One Bucks Free Press reader, Arnie Parr, worked out last week that council tax had risen by 107 per cent since 1997. I am not sure if that's correct, but so far no one has countered this.
That's an astonishing indictment of the local government system which taxes us up to our eyeballs while regularly cutting things.
As I've said before in this column, I don't know how some people will afford to live next year. 4.5 per cent looks on paper like a pretty harmless figure, but if you are legally forced - by the ultimate threat of jail - to pay a rising fee you cannot afford, then it's not that harmless after all.
My other bugbear is the health service. At some point next year, Wycombe Hospital's inpatient mother and children's services are likely to be moved to Stoke Mandeville in Aylesbury.
The arguments for and against this transfer are well rehearsed and it's well known that I am a resolute opponent of the move.
However, the astonishing point about the saga, is that the first consultations took place way back in early 2004. The decision to move was taken in early 2005, and yet it may be nearer to 2009 before the thing happens.
I remember going to consultation meetings in 2004 and being told how imperative it was that the services had to move. We were given warnings about the impact of the new European Working Time Directive and were told about the shortages of medical staff.
Health officials and councillors on a scrutiny committee all agreed the changes had to happen, despite the fact local people complained in their droves about the plans.
So let's say for just one moment that the health officials were right and we campaigners were all wrong. It is possible.
If that were the case, then why has nothing happened all these years later? And why are they now talking about ploughing ahead with a plan based on studies done in 2004?
My bet is that many local people have forgotten about the NHS transfer and will be in for a huge shock when it does happen.
If the transfer of services does happen next year, it's going to make 2008 very ugly indeed.
So here's my Yuletide present to readers: council tax increases, parking hikes and NHS transfers. I'm tempted to package it all together with a ho, ho' ho' but I'll resist the temptation.
Oh, and I forgot: Merry Christmas.