IT’S a trend for residents of many places in the UK to slag off their hometown and say it would be better to live almost anywhere else.

I’m afraid High Wycombe has often been ill-used in this way, with some of the populace giving the impression it’s a dump.

Well, as a relative newcomer to the town (20 years), I love it and believe you would be hard-pressed to find a better place to live.

This was reinforced on Bank Holiday Monday when I took a rare trip back to North London where I spent my first 24 years.

It’s easy to look back at your past through rose-tinted spectacles, and yearn for a return to the ‘better’ days of one’s youth. I never exactly had these delusions about Palmers Green and Bounds Green but somehow pictured the area in a far more attractive light than it appeared on Monday.

Firstly, we were met by a sea of yellow speed cameras, making Bucks’ roads look anarchic in comparison.

There were also roadworks everywhere, and the result was you didn’t get very far very quickly.

So I had a chance to gaze out the window and reflect on how everything looked dingy and messy, a stark contrast to Wycombe. I’d just rushed from the parkland of The Rye to drive to London to visit relatives, and the difference was striking.

After our family visit ended, I suggested to my son that I’d drive him to the road in Palmers Green where I grew up.

I’m not accustomed to acting on such whims, and soon realised why. As we drove along the North Circular, we saw traffic backing up on the other side, making our journey home an awful prospect.

It will be gone by the time we return, I reassured Mrs Editor’s Chair.

Sadly, we never had a chance to find out because in legendary Cohen pathfinder-style, mishap was soon to follow.

I had driven along that stretch of the North Circular hundreds of times in my youth and remembered the route well. But just as I was about to turn into my old road, I realised the access from this end had been paved off to traffic. The entire stretch had been redesigned with a new service road, and I had no idea how to get into it.

A part of my past disintegrated before my eyes, and I drove on until I reached a large roundabout which had also been completely renovated.

There was a slip turning on the left which I missed and I found myself on the A10 driving towards Enfield.

The M25 was only a few miles up the road so I told my fed-up passengers I would carry on home. It only added a few miles to the trip and the bonus was I wouldn’t have to face the gridlock we had passed on the North Circular route.

I congratulated myself on a fine plan as I hit the M25 at around 6.30pm.

But my joy was short-lived as the traffic suddenly stopped and the voice on my sat nav told me the motorway was closed ahead at junction 24.

So we crawled in traffic until just after 9pm – a delay of more than 2.5 hours.

What was particularly dispiriting was the moronic rudeness of other motorists, mostly the ones in 4x4s and sports cars. They felt they were unworthy of such a jam, so just hared along the hard shoulder.

More often than not they then found themselves blocked by a stationary vehicle and had to force their way back into the proper lanes. This created extra hold-ups and much aggro.

Finally, we got to the end of the snarl-up which was caused by a massive accident across both sides of the motorway. It was hard to complain about such a jam because our inconvenience was meaningless compared to the suffering of those involved in the smash.

As we made our way home, we realised we hadn’t eaten, and figured most restaurants and pubs would be closing. Happily, Beaconsfield has a new motorway service station, where food is available until the early hours. A small point, perhaps, but it typifies the convenience we have become accustomed to in this county.

You see, you have almost everything in Bucks: beautiful countryside, quaint pubs, large parks, big town centres – all in close proximity to London and Birmingham, and all the main motorway routes.

I never regretted leaving London for High Wycombe, and Monday confirmed the point. It’s so easy to moan about your town, but I’ve lived and stayed in many places around the world, and Wycombe compares with the best of them.