Don’t judge a book by its cover is a grand old saying. It doesn’t just apply to books of course, but it’s a good place to start.

I am an avid reader of books – outstripped marginally by being an avid buyer of books. The consequence of that, as you bright mathematicians will have already realised, is that I invariably have a pile of 15 or 20 books waiting to be read.

A recent bout of flu helped me narrow the gap a little, but it’s still of gulf-like proportions Anyway, walk into a book shop and unless you know what you’re looking for you’re in serious trouble. You will be met by all sorts of bright and clever covers that actually hide a pile of written rubbish.

The same applies to people. A pretty or handsome face is no guarantee of an interesting personality.

Yet regardless of all this wisdom, covers are still important to us. We want people to look at things and say: ‘Hey, that’s really good.’ That may be fine for works of art – which are subjective anyway – but it’s deeply flawed when it comes to books, people, streets, houses, cars and anything else you can think of that’s got a whole lot more behind the façade.

Yet it seems High Wycombe’s planning chiefs have fallen into the same trap of superficiality.

At the top of Marlow Hill is a patch of ground that has looked pretty much an eyesore for as long as I’ve lived here, which would be about five years.

It started out as halls of residence for students and degenerated into tatty, boarded up buildings surrounded by ‘temporary’ metal fencing.

The whole site is ripe for development and a company has duly trotted along with a plan for building more than a 100 homes, but Wycombe District Council planners are not a happy bunch.

Planning chiefs threw it out saying that the design and layout did not add to the council’s desire to make this site a fitting ‘gateway’ to the town.

And there you have it. The cover is not good enough for our book.

What the planners are saying in effect is that visitors will arrive in Wycombe, see this development and arrive at the wrong conclusion about our town. It’s a dull estate and therefore it heralds a dull town.

Interesting theory isn’t it?

Of course it also raises a very big question and it is this: what is a fitting ‘gateway’ for High Wycombe at the top of Marlow Hill? Indeed what does the first time visitor to the town see when coming from that direction.

Well assuming they’ve safely negotiated the complex Handy Cross junction and not disappeared off to Marlow Bottom or Asda it won’t be the strip of land in question.

They will actually be greeted by a typical suburban sports centre on their right and a typical rambling suburban school on their left.

The strip of land worrying the minds of planners and councillors is actually after those so the ‘gateway’ argument has fallen straight down a hole.

An impression of Wycombe has already been cast on the visitor and it will be this: that here we are entering a typical and average English town with no pretension about being something it’s not.

And to my mind that’s a fitting cover for our book.