At the risk of prolonging the debate, I must take issue with the desperate claims made by Councillors Hall and Hayday to refute the statement that having a town council would cost residents a great deal more council tax.

Councillor Hall argues that the higher tax in Princes Risborough is all the fault of the wicked county council because Princes Risborough has to fund its own street lights.

Even allowing for the cost of maintaining these, the tax levied in Risborough would still be considerably more. Aylesbury, whose town council costs their residents three times the tax that High Wycombe residents pay, does not have to fund its lights as they are maintained by the county council.

Councillor Hayday claims that decisions made by the Town Committee have to be approved by the cabinet. This is true under the Executive system imposed on the council some years ago, but Councillor Hayday does not give a single example of where the cabinet has refused to endorse a decision of the Town Committee and I challenge him to do so. I would also point out that when he was a member of the district council he was very happy with the arrangement and indeed in 2007 was Vice Chairman of the committee.

Again, Councillor Hayday chooses to ignore the comparison of High Wycombe with Aylesbury, a town of similar size. Aylesbury used to be run like High Wycombe but a few years ago changed to a town council. The proportion of council tax charged to the residents of the town has gone up from a similar level to that in High Wycombe to now being three times the amount. The residents of Aylesbury that I have talked to have seen no commensurate improvement in services for the massive increase in cost. — Councillor Tony Green, Chairman of the High Wycombe Town Committee