Row over town councils blooming between councillors (From Bucks Free Press)

Row over town councils blooming between councillors

9:10am Monday 17th September 2012 in News

A BIZARRE row over the effectiveness of town councils is blossoming between two councillors – with the state of their town’s flowerbeds at the centre of it.

Wycombe District Cllr Tony Green, and Cllr Walford Woolf of Princes Risborough Town Council have crossed swords about the efficiency and effect of town councils.

Cllr Green stated earlier this month that a town council was not needed in Wycombe as it ‘adds an extra layer of bureaucracy and cost’ to taxpayers – pointing to the council tax rise in Risborough over the last ten years as an example.

But Cllr Woolf took exception to Cllr Green’s “spiteful campaign” against Risborough and called High Wycombe town centre an ‘untidy mess’ due to the lack of attention it receives as a result of no town council looking after it.

The battle has raged on this week and, seemingly, will be decided on each town’s respective abilities to make an eye catching flower arrangement.

The first blow was landed by Cllr Woolf, who sent Cllr Green and the BFP two photos – one of a sorry-looking plant pot outside Sainsbury’s in Oxford Road, High Wycombe, and the other of a colourful display in Bell Street, Princes Risborough.

Cllr Woolf said: “I know which one I am proud to be associated with, and which one should be a resigning matter due to blatant lack of interest by local council members who should be on top of this kind of thing.

“The High Wycombe town, of whose principal committee you chair, is a mess, and photographs cannot lie. The exchanges of dialogue which you instigated in the BFP could be likened to an episode of Only Fools and Horses, only this isn't funny.”

But Cllr Green picked himself off the metaphorical canvas and hit back with his own photographic evidence of Wycombe’s planting prowess by sending in a snap of the vibrant flowerbeds in the old library gardens in Queen Victoria Road, High Wycombe.

He said: “As for your choice of photographs to try to prove that in Princes Risborough you take more care of the flower beds than we do in Wycombe, I had already explained the planters outside Sainsbury's are the responsibility of the supermarket not the District Council.

“If you want a direct comparison of flowers under the control of the respective councils, I attach a photo of a flower bed in the old library gardens which is maintained by the District Council. This, I believe, is a fairer comparison than the one you selected.

“Nowhere in my comments to the Bucks Free Press did I mention you other than to say that you get upset whenever I state that Council Tax in Princes Risborough is higher than it is in High Wycombe.

“This is not a derogatory remark; it is a statement of fact. Explaining that Town and Parish Councils often have higher precepts than High Wycombe is, again, a statement of fact, not an insult.”