High Wycombe weighs in new mayor (From Bucks Free Press)

High Wycombe weighs in new mayor Chaudhary Ditta

4:40pm Saturday 21st May 2011 in News By Lawrence Dunhill

Mayor Chaudhary Ditta on the scales with granddaughter Ayesha Masood

BOOS and cheers rang around Frogmoor this morning as crowds gathered to see whether High Wycombe's dignitaries have been dining out at the taxpayers' expense.

Incoming mayor Chaudhary Ditta raised a cheer at the traditional Mayor Making ceremony when the town crier yelled out “no more” as he left the scales.

The annual ritual has been going on since 1678 and sees civic dignitaries weighed at the beginning and end of their term in office.

Jane White, the outgoing mayor, left the scales to boos and jeers after the cry of “and some more”, but has the opportunity to start afresh, as she has been picked to take on the role of mayoress.

More than 50 dignitaries were weighed after passing through a guard of honour and a procession from the Guildhall, where Cllr Ditta had been sworn into office.

Cllr Ditta told the Bucks Free Press he wished his late-father, Chaudhary Alaf Khan, who died in 2009, had been there to see the occasion.

He said: “When you have a great day in your life you really do miss him. Somewhere up there he's looking at me and he's very proud.”

And he reserved a thought for the 'would-have-been' mayor, Mohammed Abdul-Karim, who lost his seat in what was one of the big surprises of the district election earlier this month.

“It all came as a shock”, said Cllr Ditta. “The deputy also lost his seat and there was quite a chaos there. I have great sympathy for him but the opportunity fell on me and I'm over the moon.”

Cllr Ditta, originally from Kashmir, first moved to Wycombe in 1973 and owns the Costcutters store on Arnison Avenue in Totteridge.

His proud family watched the whole ceremony and eight-year-old granddaughter, Ayesha Masood, who goes to Highworth County Combined School, was even weighed on the scales.

The Bowerdean councillor was proposed for the role by Lib Dem colleague Julia Wassell, who described him as “a tolerant man with a natural inclination towards conflict resolution”.

He has chosen four local youth charities to benefit from his Mayor's Appeal. They are Street Dreams, Wycombe Youth Action, Wycombe Young Minds and the Young Carers branch of Bucks Carers.

Other dignitaries to hear “and some more” and the wrath of the crowd were Tony Green, the former deputy leader of Wycombe District Council, and Wycombe MP Steve Baker – who revelled in the boos by cupping his hand to his ear.

Among the guests at the reception in the town hall afterwards were the new mayors of Beaconsfield and Amersham, as well as a London-based reporter from Pakistani newspaper The News.

There was also a Medieval May Fayre in town today, with market stalls, civil war re-enactments, a falconry display, funfair rides and face painting.