‘Methinks they doth protest too much!’ The responses of Cllr Gary Hall and Cllr Darren Hayday (Letters, April 4) to my letter setting out the financial benefits to residents of High Wycombe in resisting the siren call to have a town council were entirely predictable.
Cllr Hall always raises street lighting as the reason for the excessive burden borne by Princes Risborough residents. Readers will note he carefully avoids stating what the tax would be if one removed this from the precept as well as the other unspecified expensive services that are peculiar to Princes Risborough. Maybe he should enlighten readers?
By the way I never stated town councils and parishes are nasty, merely that the High Wycombe Town Committee model was a very effective alternative approach.
In the case of Cllr Hayday, he accuses me of scaremongering and alleges you can’t compare a large town like High Wycombe with Princes Risborough or Marlow. Cllr Hayday seems incapable of explaining what a town council can do that High Wycombe Town Committee cannot. Would he care to specify the local projects and services HWTC cannot deliver but a town council could, instead of making misleading allegations?
Possibly it would be helpful if we focussed on the fact Aylesbury is not dissimilar in size to High Wycombe and a town council there costs Band D taxpayers £51.81 compared to £17.80 in High Wycombe with the alternative system. The figures speak for themselves. — Roger Colomb, Independent (Real Conservative), Terriers and Amersham Hill Ward, Wycombe District Council
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