Weeds and cigarette butts are “blighting” the town centre, a resident has claimed - amid calls for more work to be carried out to improve the “neglected” area.

A resident named Mr R Hutton spoke out at Wycombe District Council’s full council meeting on Monday night, asking how councillors would be “remedying” the issues around the town centre.

He said: “The High Street is a prominent part of the town and sets the tone for the area, over the course of time it has become neglected.

“In particular, the black street furniture is in a worn and dirty state, some metal grilles around the trees are missing, the cobbles outside The Falcon pub and Little Market House are greasy, there is graffiti to some areas. Weeds and cigarette butts blight the base of the trees.”

It comes amid a string of complaints about the state of the town centre from both shoppers and councillors alike.

In March last year, Cllr Julia Wassell said the town’s public areas have been “wrecked”, Cllr Lesley Clarke said it was “in desperate need” of work and in June, Cllr Sebert Graham complained that High Wycombe has “one of the worst high streets”.

An elderly shopper also complained about the state of the town centre last year after falling and breaking her kneecap in three places on uneven pavement near Bull Lane - prompting the council to admit the town centre has fallen into “disrepair”.

Cllr Julia Adey, cabinet member for environment, said the cleaning issues that have been raised had been passed onto the waste team for action and issues have been “rectified as far as possible” - including the removal of a “small amount” of graffiti and cigarette butts.

She added: “In fact the areas where there had been graffiti had been repainted last Friday. The condition of the street furniture such as the metal boxes is not always within the control of the council but we have been working with High Wycombe BIDCo on arranging some trial coatings that are resistant to fly-posting and graffiti.

“These coatings will also refresh the outward appearance of the boxes.”

Cllr Adey said the joint waste team has also recently drawn up a town centre improvement plan and “ageing” street litter bins have been replaced with “modern and easy to clean units”.

A programme of street washing was also said to have been carried out in December in much of the town centre, including the market place. Further work in the market place area is also planned to refresh the area, with jetwashing set to be carried out this month.