LETTERS: 'Major Wycombe overhaul calls for a town council'

Recently the BFP reported that Beaconsfield Liberal Democrats had said they would not oppose Dominic Grieve if he stood as an independent candidate, if a general election is called before Brexit is finalised.

The Lib Dem parliamentary candidate, Rob Castell, was quoted saying: “I came into politics to do what I feel is right, not to advance my career, and I’m not about to stand in the way of one of the most distinguished and well respected advocates of a Peoples Vote at a time like this …’

How much difference this will make is uncertain. At the last election Dominic Grieve and the Tories won with 36,559 votes, or 65.3% of the vote, while the Labour Party had 21.4% of the vote and the Lib Dems had 7.9% in third place and votes for all non-Conservative candidates amounted to just over half of what the Tories gained.

I am a long-term supporter of traditional Labour values, but in a seat like Beaconsfield anyone other than a Conservative candidate has little chance of winning, and I think many local people would join me in urging Beaconsfield Labour Party to put aside their principles on this occasion, follow the example of the Lib Dems, and abstain from opposing Mr Grieve in the next election. (This suggestion would also apply to the Green Party.)

Grieve needs to do some opinion polling in the locality – he may lose anyway against an official Conservative candidate, so not putting up a candidate may be wasted generosity, however this is not a foregone conclusion - there must be a considerable number of long-established business and professional, pragmatic Conservatives, who do not feel at home in the Brexit sect version of their Party, and would not support the self-inflicted wound of Brexit, particularly a no-deal Brexit - if a quarter or a third of the people who voted for Grieve as an official Conservative in the last election were to vote for him as an Independent in the next election and there were no other serious candidates then this would be sufficient to re-elect him, rather than a UKIP entryist from the current Beaconsfield Conservative Association. This would have the additional advantage of putting a practical and rational person in as our MP rather than a one issue monomaniac of possibly limited talent.

Since writing this letter I have been called by David Norris of Beaconsfield Labour Party. If I understood Mr Norris correctly, BLP has no parliamentary candidate selected by the local or central Labour Party organisations, at the moment, to be the Parliamentary candidate at the next election, and the local party has already expressed a wish to abstain from opposing Mr Grieve. Surely this is another reason for the Labour Party to abstain from what would be gesture politics, in an election that could accomplish the imposition of Brexit.

Lawrence Linehan, Wooburn Green

Did the Supreme Court get it wrong?

The Queen has been on the throne for 67 years. During that time there have been 14 Prime Ministers and as a result, I believe she has more knowledge and understanding about how our constitution works in practice than any other person living today.

The recent suspension of Parliament was sought by the Prime Minister and agreed by the Queen. In considering the request, she probably took the view that after three years of bitter infighting over Europe and no end to the deadlock in sight, a short period of silence and reflection by Parliament before the start of a new session might be for the best.

The Queen is bound by the law just like everybody else but perhaps in her wisdom she got it right and the judges of the Supreme Court got it wrong.

What the average citizen thinks about it all will only be known when the next general election is finally held.

Laurence Reed, Beaconsfield

Residents worried about PM’s integrity

Jackson Ng, chairman of Beaconsfield Conservative Association, wrote in last week's BFP about the goodness of Boris Johnson.

Readers need to be reminded that a lot of Conservative voters in South Bucks are worried about the PM's integrity, truthfulness and all-round character. He seems a jolly nice bloke but too many think he's a schemer.

Other public figures down the years would have had their career prospects halted by some of the things Johnson has said or done. Too many try to forgive him. The list is quite long and perhaps too racy for this paper about his private and public life in Henley as MP and London as mayor and PM.

A detailed 449-page biography about him, "Just Boris" by Sonia Purnell makes fascinating topical reading.

We all have human failings but Boris Johnson has said and done enough in public life to have him run out of town.

Britain deserves a PM better than him. The other worry is that Jeremy Corbyn has other big weaknesses and Jo Swinson in the Lib Dems has faults too. Nigel Farage is still in the wings but has flaws, say many, and just spouts away on just one topic.

None make a wonderful reassuring prospect for the election.

Name withheld, Tylers Green

‘Come back Karen – all is forgiven’

Was it only in July that Karen Satterford when announcing her departure from WDC after 13 years, reminded councillors that they were only planning for seven or eight months ahead as WDC gets terminated on March 31st 2020?

Obviously the message did not register with our councillors as they have now issued an ambitious project for Wycombe town (Special Report, BFP October 25) with a major overhaul which could double the economy by 2050.

Naturally this “vision” was enthusiastically endorsed by our civic leaders, with no-one being willing to say how much it would cost, nor who would pay for it, nor when it would start.

Perhaps the clue was in the initial report on the proposal for a garden piazza on Frogmoor (Bucks Free Press, October 18) when it was suggested that the project would be put forward to the Shadow Authority for the new unified Bucks authority.

Since the role of this shadow group is to set things up for the real authority to take over on April 1st 2020 they are not in any position to develop multi-million pound projects. Is WDC just clearing out the old paper work?

Instead of coming up with wish lists of vanity projects WDC should concentrate on real issues affecting their legal responsibilities in the transfer. Sorting out redundancy payments to staff who will not get a new job at Aylesbury and archiving all the paper and digital documents would be a good place to start. There is now only five months left.

So come back Karen - all is forgiven.

Andrew Barrow, Hazlemere

(Extinction) Rebellion is not the answer

Last week my friend did something she hasn’t done in her two decades of living in London – she called herself a cab. She has always been principled, always trusted public services, to the extent of hauling her luggage on public transport on her trips to Europe. She’s only ever “regretfully,” so she says, used removal vans when moving homes.

She avoids disposables, she recycles, and she follows every recycling tip. But she had to, for the first time, pay an eye-watering £40 from Canary Wharf to Farringdon. We all know why – there was a protest going on.

In principle I agree with the protest. I am encouraged when I see people of all ages fighting for their future, for their rights. I want the Government to follow the advice of experts and scientists on climate change – that strong actions will have to be taken, but unfortunately the Canning Town tube station protests have proven that they have been hijacked by far-left, Marxists and anarchists who would stop at nothing to “damage the economy” in order to make the Government “listen to the science” and act on climate change. The protests in the last two weeks have so far cost the police £21 million, and have no doubt affected thousands of ordinary lives, the vast majority of whom, want to do their bit for the environment just like my friend.

But what is the science that they want the Government to listen to? The independent Climate Change Committee states that we could feasibly become carbon neutral by 2050, for which the previous Government has legislated a legally binding target for. The science is that for the fifth largest economy in the world, we emit 1.02% of global carbon emissions (as compared to China which emits 29.07%). The facts are that we are acting within our means and taking bold action to address climate change.

Prior to the climate protests the Government has already done some significant work on climate change. However, some may argue that the good, decent people – the teachers, students, pensioners in the demonstrations have brought this issue into our key public consciousness, and they have done well. Now it is up to the Government to carry out what is within its means to tackle climate change. We have invested in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCUS) technology which will be a “game changer” in making carbon-neutrality an achievable reality. We have invested in green energy – this year we are starting to see a drastic reduction in coal use, and we are seeing more energy generated via renewables as compared to fossil fuels.

The only way for us to have a greater impact in addressing climate change is through investments in scientific research, backed by a strong economy. It is through a foreign policy that we can influence other countries to change their behaviour, as backed by our trade and economic ties across the world.

The last thing we need to achieve progress on dealing with climate change, is an economy weakened by wilful damage, by people who do not believe in our moderate, sensible approach which has worked so well so far.

Jackson Ng, chairman, Beaconsfield Constituency Conservative Association

Wycombe overhaul calls for a town council

Conservative administrations in Wycombe District Council (WDC) over the years have not done our town any favours in starving it of money for purposes like heritage. In so doing High Wycombe, which used to have the look and feel of an important town, has fallen so far from grace that even local writer Eddie Brazil failed to include it in the list of towns to visit in his book ’50 Gems of Buckinghamshire.’

However, WDC must be congratulated for planning to bring creativity and vitality back to the centre of High Wycombe with ideas for the regeneration of the High Street, Frogmoor and the Brunel Rail Shed. These plans look exciting and should help change local perceptions as well as the face of the town. The plans have been a long time coming but at least they have now been aired and the council appears to want to deliver. Sadly, with a life expectancy of less than six months, nothing can be guaranteed, however, as the district council dissolves into the new unitary authority - the Buckinghamshire Council - on April Fool’s Day, 2020.

Leader of the council, Cllr Katrina Wood says she wants to make sure the town is not forgotten when this happens. One sure way of way of ensuring this, in fact probably the only way, is to bring back Wycombe’s Town Council which has been posted missing since 1974. This would go a long way to guaranteeing future implementation with the town council taking over the plans and potentially starting to deliver from day one.

Presuming a town council returns these plans, of course, would need money to be completed so, perhaps, before the present council dissolves it might like to allocate a generous amount of funds for this project. After all WDC is one of the richest councils in the country with reserves of over £200,000,000.

As things stand, this colossal accumulation of money, amassed in the district, is destined to leave the area and pass to the new council which will almost certainly be based in Aylesbury. It would seem then, that for Cllr Martin Tett and the new Buckinghamshire Council, in 2020, Christmas will come early in April.

Willie Reid, High Wycombe