Wycombe District Council

Throughout my time in Parliament, my constituency has included parts of both Aylesbury Vale and Wycombe District Councils. So last Thursday I went to Wycombe DC’s offices to talk to the Chairman (Bill Bendyshe Brown), Leader (Lesley Clark), Deputy Leader (Tony Green) and Chief Executive (Karen Satterford). My colleagues Steve Baker, Dominic Grieve and John Bercow were all there too, so we had a full set of Wycombe District MPs.

We spent a lot of our time discussing housing. Wycombe intends to ballot council tenants on whether to transfer their homes to a housing trust. Under Treasury rules, this arrangement would bring in extra money for repairs and improvements that wouldn’t be available if the houses stay in council ownership. Aylesbury Vale DC transferred its housing stock to a trust a few years ago, so I was able to point to the lessons that could be learned from that experience.

Other items on the agenda included the Hemley Hill travellers’ site, where the decision will now be taken by the Secretary of State rather than an inspector, plans by Wasps and Wycombe Wanderers for a big new stadium to replace Adams Park, HS2, and Garsington Opera’s move to the Wormsley estate in Stokenchurch.

This last is really good news for the area. Garsington has a very high reputation. We can expect its customers to spend money in the local economy and there will be new jobs, at least in the summer, associated with the productions themselves. The management of Garsington have also told me that they plan to work with local schools (a boost for the music curriculum) and invite local people to watch rehearsals.