EVERYONE likes a nice river, don’t they? The sound of water flowing, the way it sparkles on a summer day, even the sight of a few ducks and moorhens paddling about.

Rivers, both large and small, are just plain old nice things to have where you live. So it still seems astonishing that the thought of concreting over Wycombe’s own waterway was considered a good enough idea that someone actually once went and did it.

Obviously this was no whim. Much of the culverting of the River Wye in the town centre came about to make way for major redevelopment of the town: improved road access, a rather bleak-looking flyover, not to mention the horror that was once Bridge Street car park.

As such it was probably the simplest, possibly cheapest, option at the time. More recently, of course, Eden added another layer of concrete to the Wye’s tomb.

Fifty-odd years on, though, such uncreative planning does seem remarkably daft.

Wycombe’s Masterplan – not to be confused with the housing development-heavy Local Plan – is largely about making the town centre a more pleasant environment for residents and visitors alike. It recently got off to a controversial start with the narrowing of the A40 lanes to build a pedestrian crossing between the town and the Rye.

I suppose history will be the judge of whether that was a good idea or not, but as the parent of a young child who often visits the Rye, I have quickly come to appreciate it. Perhaps it wasn’t the most immediately essential use of council coffers, but the crossing seems well-used and is a far more attractive option than the grim flood-prone underpass nearby.

With that in mind, the idea of raising a river back through the town, floated recently by a environmentalist author, sounds like a great one.

I remember when Reading was always considered a bit grotty; the sort of place to go for a surgical strike of a Christmas shopping trip – get in, buy what you need and then get out, fast. But then came the Oracle, and while the covered shopping centre doesn’t do much for me (I actually prefer Eden’s openness, despite the ‘wind-tunnel’ moaning it prompts) the revamped riverside area was a true jewel in that development’s crown.

Wycombe gets a lot of bashing for its appearance – some fair, some not (any town flanked by green spaces as fantastic as The Rye and Hughenden Park certainly does not deserve most of the whinging it attracts – although I grant you Frogmoor probably warrants plenty) so anything to improve its feel has to be seriously considered.

Charles Rangely-Wilson, author of a book called Silt Road, which focuses on waterways across the area, says it is possible to raise the River Wye once more and have it flow through the town centre along a man-made course, not necessarily the one it originally followed (see page 11).

All that’s needed, he claims, is the money and will to do it. Well, one of those may be a problem, but I would hope the second isn’t.

Justifying the short term cost may be tricky, but if the principle of the Masterplan is to make Wycombe more appealing for residents, workers and visitors – hopefully attracting long-term investment along the way – then this seems an obvious way to do it.

If nothing else, the river that gave Wycombe its name surely deserves better than being buried under a concrete flyover, done away with like some hapless petty crook who crossed the wrong crime boss in some 70s gangster movie.