council

The Town Council is an elected body of 13 unpaid councillors who have statutory responsibilities for certain aspects of the town, these include street lights, public parks, grass cutting and maintaining some of the listed buildings such as the Market House. Other non-statutory areas the council is involved in are planning applications, forward planning for the town as a whole and as a community voice to Wycombe District Council and Buckinghamshire County Council as well as local business. Responsibility for arranging the towns festivals (Christmas lights, summer festival) is 'handed over' to the festival committee which has councillors and non councillors as members.

Full Council meetings take place at 7:15pm on the last Tuesday of each month in The Chapter House, St Mary’s Church and are open to the public. Typically the meetings last 2 hours and will usually include a report from the police. The first 10 minutes of the meeting are available for the general public to raise any issues they may have with the council.


Finance Committee meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm

The Finance Committee is the financial link between the full Town Council and the 'spending' committees, ie Administration, Town and Lighting, Parks, Public Relations and Burials committees. The Town Council requires that those committees whose activities necessitate spending and the production of tenders should be held responsible for the development and the management of their individual budgets. This devolution of financial responsibility is intended to engender a greater feeling of ownership within the individual committees and lead to better value for money for the town.

At the start of each financial year, a council meeting is held to agree the estimated expenditure of all committees for the coming year and, from this, to establish the town’s precept (the amount of money the council asks for in the council tax under 'parish'). This goes to the Finance Committee for a final check, before being passed by them to the full Town Council for formal endorsement.

The Finance Committee's membership comprises the chairmen of each of the spending committees. The Chairman of the Town Council is an ex officio member. The Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Finance Committee are council members with no other chair responsibilities. Throughout the year the Finance committee monitors expenditure to ensure probity and value for money, and to check that the rate of spend is acceptable. The composition of the committee allows free and open discussion on all financial matters and the means to respond rapidly to any unforeseen problems.

Memorial Garden Committee. 
The Committee are responsible for managing and over-seeing the budget allocated to running Stratton Memorial Garden.

Parks Committee.  The Parks Committee are responsible for the general maintenance of all the parks and playground equipment.   This includes, litter and glass clearance, dog waste collections, grass cutting, hedges and trees, playground equipment maintenance.

Public Relations Committee.  The Public Relations are responsible for the production and distribution of Crosstalk newsletter, website management, public meetings and events.

Town and Lighting Committee.  The Town & Lighting Committee are responsible for the general maintenance of the Town. This includes lighting, litter picking, grass cutting, trees and flowerbeds, war memorials, CCTV maintenance, Market House maintenance.