High Wycombe councillors have condemned the decision not to give the area its own town council despite a majority voting for a new parish-level authority.
On Tuesday, [September 10], it was decided that the currently ‘unparished’ area of High Wycombe should not become a parish and that its existing governance arrangements – including the town committee, charter trustees and community board – were sufficient.
Councillors in the town have reacted angrily to the decision made by Buckinghamshire Council’s standards and general purposes committee, which went against the 60 per cent of people who backed creating a town council in a consultation in which 2,532 people responded.
Just hours after the decision, at a meeting of the town committee on Tuesday evening, Cllr Steve Guy told his colleagues: “We don’t have any decision-making power.
“Next Wednesday, 147 councillors, 123 of whom have got nothing to do with our area, will endorse the decision to prevent us once again having a town council.”
The Labour councillor referred to the full council meeting of September 18 during which the Conservative majority of councillors are expected to ‘rubber stamp’ the standards committee’s recommendation that a town council is not set up in Wycombe.
During the eight-week consultation on the town council between February and April of this year, the people of Wycombe were asked whether or not they wanted a town council.
Residents were also asked whether they were prepared to pay for a new town council, with 43 per cent saying they were and 46 per cent saying they were not.
However, the inclusion of this question has prompted anger among some councillors, including Wycombe independent Cllr Darren Hayday, who suggested that the question may have skewed the feedback from residents.
The councillor told the town committee meeting: “As soon as we saw that question about the cost in there, which I find is highly irregular in a consultation, it was obvious that it was a set-up. We all know that. I am truly disappointed.”
During the town committee meeting – which merely provided a verbal update on the town council decision – a security guard was present. Cllr Julia Wassell asked chairman Cllr Paul Turner why this was the case, to which he replied that there was ‘no specific threat’.
Cllr Julia Wassell, who helped bring about the original review of how Wycombe is governed, then gave her reaction to the decision on the town council.
The Wycombe independent said: “People said they wanted a town council, but they didn’t want to pay for it. The way the governance review was set up is utterly ludicrous because it is intrinsic, if you want something, unfortunately you have to pay for it.”
However, Conservative Wycombe Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja, who backed the decision not to create a town council, suggested that some councillors needed to stop ‘lying’.
He claimed that creating a town council would have ‘increased the precept’ – the amount of money an authority requires from council taxpayers in an area.
The Conservative councillor added: “You need to look up, smell the coffee, wake up and think about what you are saying. The people of Wycombe deserve better.”
Cllr Raja and Cllr Wassell exchanged tense words before the chairman told them not to call out at each other, telling them it was ‘not respectful’ and that they were on their ‘last warning’.
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