ANGRY town leaders say they have never received their plaque for the best kept village contest ... after winning more than a year ago.

Marlow town councillors want to know what happened to the wrought-iron plaque that should have been put up in the town for winning the competition. On Tuesday, council members suddenly realised the plaque had never appeared. The startling news was revealed when the town clerk said the title won the year before had been lost in this year's competition. He was unable to say what had happened to the plaque because his letters to the organisers have not been answered. Some town councillors demanded that the plaque be put up in Marlow for a year, even though their time has expired. Others want an inquiry to find out what happened to the trophy. The town clerk had been informed by Bucks Association that the plaque had been put in another place in the county. 15 years ago CATNAPPERS could be on the prowl for exotic breeds to steal and sell, a cat expert has warned.

Mrs Holt, a Burmese cat breeder, says she knows of at least four of this variety which have mysteriously disappeared within the last year. And she suspects crafty catnappers are patrolling Flackwell Heath, Loudwater and Marlow on the look-out for Burmese cats to sell elsewhere. Mrs Holt, a member of the Burmese Cat Club and landlady of the Crooked Billet, Little Marlow, says a good quality Burmese can fetch between £65 and £85. At first, she thought the cats had been taken for vivisection. "Then I thought they must have been sold because they are just not reappearing," she added. "They do not just disappear off the face of the earth." The mystery started last November when Mrs Holt's neighbour lost her Burmese. He has never been found and Mrs Holt says she knows of other cases around the area. 25 years ago WITH mounting protests in High Wycombe and other Buckinghamshire towns about the ever-increasing noise disturbance by low-flying jet aircraft, High Wycombe Borough Council is asking the authorities to devise a new route to take aircraft away from the populated Wycombe area completely. Amenity groups in many parts of the Thames Valley most seriously affected by the re-routing of jets over the area have been complaining more forcibly about the noise and low flying. Aircraft to and from Heathrow are now passing over the densely populated areas of High Wycombe and the Thames Valley almost continuously throughout the day, at the rate of one every few minutes. One High Wycombe resident described aircraft "coming slap bang on top of us whether we like it or not." He added: "You get very, very, few complaints about Booker flights. They don't bother me at all, but the jets do."

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