Greater powers for High Wycombe Town Committee?

The Conservative leader of Wycombe District Council, Cllr Richard Scott, says he is considering giving the town committee enhanced powers following a plea from the opposition and other town councillors.

The committee has no executive powers and acts in an advisory capacity to WDC’s Cabinet on issues affecting the High Wycombe town area.

Cllr Scott told the BFP: “I think the present system works quite well.

“But what I am going to look at, and I have told the opposition leaders this, is to look at whether we can increase some of its powers.

“That will not be a town council but whether we can give them other areas, because it is important. But it will not be a town council.

“I think it is a different animal to look at individual towns and villages from looking at the centre of the town like this [committee does].”

New leader of the Wycombe Liberal Democrats Cllr Simon Parker welcomed the announcement but said “more meat on the bones” is required before he passes further comment about any changes.

Cllr Scott’s comments follow a public plea by Lib Dem Cllr Trevor Snaith for the new WDC leader to “right a wrong” and give the committee the ability to elect its own chairman.

He has been campaigning for a town council to replace the committee but said giving town members the right to appoint its own chairman and deputy would be a good “interim solution”.

Cllr Snaith said before being weighed in as Wycombe’s new mayor: “That way the will of the ruling party, which doesn’t represent the views of the town members, is not being imposed upon the town committee.”

All councillors from the town wards serve on the committee but it is the council that elects who is to be chairman and deputy chair.

While WDC as a whole is dominantly controlled by the Conservatives - which holds 41 of the 60 available seats - the town committee has an almost equal split of members from the three main political parties.