A RECENT piece in a national newspaper indicated concern at the increase of "gated communities" in our society which indicate, essentially, exclusivity and social isolation by high walls and gates often double gates and in some cases CCTV cameras and concierges at the gates on 24-hour duty.

Some indeed have their own restaurants, shops, tennis courts and swimming pools.

We haven't quite got to that stage yet in Marlow but, it seems, the seeds of such a revolution have been sown.

We do have a "gated community" at Wethered Park, Marlow. We have two residents associations: The Marlow Society is exclusively "West Marlow" and Marlow Residents Association is exclusively "East Marlow" and they never meet and swap notes, so the seed of demarcation has been germinating for some time!

Sir William Borlase's and Great Marlow Schools used to similarly exercise such discrimination but community pressure and a wider mix of governors is producing new, if still somewhat curtailed, concepts of catchment spread.

That the district council approved of the setting up of Wethered Park is, surely, an indication of a latent anti-democratic philosophy and we voters have got to be on our toes in order to contest any furtherance of what is a quite serious intrusion into the essential community spirit of our town.

Like the elimination of our cinema, the continued reluctance to up-date the theatre at Court Garden, and the failure to provide a site for the sculpture donated by Rank Xerox, are clear signs of the lethargic culture myopia of our district council.

We voters have to exercise our democratic muscles a bit more if we want to save our town from the perils of a slide into feudalism!

Bill Purdie

West Street

Marlow

February 14, 2002 13:38