I MAY have said this before; if so, sorry. Anyway it was either writing again about the High Wycombe of the future, or about whether the Prime Minister should quit now, or later.

(On that, my view is why should he ever quit? He's handsome, virile, has an impeccable private life, good at absolutely everything even cricket, now we've won the Ashes. So why go?) However enough of that. What I want to repeat is that I do find Wycombe District Council's long term plans for the town pretty incredible and that's good incredible, not bad.

The council has a vision and normally visions from public bodies are things that cause me to cry into my computer.

Visions plans are either so impenetrable that I cannot understand them, let alone imagine anything ever being done, or they contain details I know will cause an uproar.

But this one is understandable. And it won't frighten the horses. There is nothing in it about building incinerators, or making sick small children catch the bus to Stoke Mandeville Hospital for treatment. And although it involves massive changes in the town centre, I can't see much that the town's guardians, the High Wycombe Society, will oppose.

It has nice things in it that people have said for years that they want.

For a start the river Wye, culverted since 1965, will be reopened. So they will be pleased about that. They should also welcome the removal of Abbey Way, leading to the creation of large areas of enjoyable green space. Plans for an arts quarter will please campaigners, including Labour councillor Julia Wassell, who told me she had been fighting for an arts centre since she was at the High School.

All this links in with the bricks and mortar aspects, and brings prospects of the changes sparking off improvements in nearby, more rundown areas.

And it can happen without anyone having to repeat the awful mantra, No Pain, no gain.