DISTRICT councillors in Wycombe got through their meeting on Monday at record speed, completing the business in less than an hour, including at least 15 minutes devoted to eulogising about Wycombe Wanderers. And why not.

One councillor, who shall be nameless, turned up so late he missed the proceedings completely though he still arrived in time for a bite to eat afterwards.

In the three months I've been here I have been pleasantly surprised at the efficient way the council deals with its business.

In Oxford, city council meetings used to start at 2pm and you were lucky if you got away before pub closing time. It was not unknown for every single councillor present to speak on just one topic.

"What could all those people have to say?" I hear you ask. Answer: little that hadn't been said before.

Good chairmanship means making sure all points of view are aired and when things start going round in circles, drawing the debate to a sharp close.

THE mayor of High Wycombe's annual ball at the weekend raised £2,500 for equipment for Wycombe Hospital, which was brilliant.

But it wasn't all sweetness and light. Some guests complained that rock and roll band Some Like It Hot played so loudly that they couldn't hear themselves speak. There was a finger-wagging episode that caused a bit of a stir when the band was told to turn down the sound by an irate ball-goer.

This does make you ask what's the point of having a band if it can't be heard? At the splendid reception given by David Cox, the chairman of Wycombe District Council the previous Thursday, music was provided by the Chiltern Camerata Orchestra, but what they were playing I couldn't tell you because it was drowned by the noise of the guests.

It did seem a shame and a waste of their talents.

TALKING of waste, what on earth was footpaths minister Beverley Hughes thinking of in summoning Buckinghamshire county councillors to London to explain like naughty schoolboys their bad behaviour in refusing to open the county's footpaths to walkers?

Three top men went to meet the minister and though that may well have been a thrill for her, I wonder why she didn't just pick up the phone and ask one of them for an explanation. Ten minutes and it could all have been sorted.

Making them go to London sounds to me like a complete waste of the councillors' time and our money.