STARTING today I'll be dusting down the hustings every week to rant about local issues that affect people's lives.

Whether it be council business, trade, crime or even the weather, I'll be watching out for the gossip, the scandals and the behind-the-scenes wranglings that get up my nose.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending my second Chesham Town Consortium meeting and what an astounding meeting it was.

These meetings are arranged for traders, retailers, councillors and community leaders who all have a stake in the town in some way or another.

It seems a great idea. People who care about the future of Chesham getting together and thrashing out a way of making things better.

That's why I find it so absolutely astonishing when discussions always seem to circle back to traffic calming and pedestrianisation.

It doesn't take a genius, by any stretch of the imagination, to see that Chesham has been close to wrecked since the High Street was paved over and saw its last car.

Okay, there may not be so many exhaust fumes and shoppers don't have to think so much about crossing the road, but where's all the hustle bustle gone from this once thriving market town?

When I walked through Chesham on Wednesday evening on my way to the Town Hall, I was struck by the echoey silence that seemed to bounce from one To Let sign to another. I almost expect to see a heap of dead weed bowling down the High Street, like a scene from an old Western.

Senior business leaders in Amersham have told me there is no doubt that Chesham's trade has been seriously damaged by the banning of the motorist from the town centre.

So why, oh why, do some of the loudest voices at Chesham's Town Consortium meetings harp on and on about more and more traffic calming, reduced speed limits and stricter rules governing access for cars and lorries in the High Street and other already pedestrianised areas?

I sat at the last meeting gobsmacked by the way so many traders were readily reaching for the gun to shoot themselves in the foot. And with a bullet hole through their favourite pair of shoes how on earth are they going to tread the empty streets of Chesham on their next trip to Buckinghamshire's very own graveyard town?

When are the people of Chesham going to wake up and smell the coffee? Pedestrianisation does not work in their town, full stop.

Tear up the red paving stones and bring back the car. Go on...you know it makes sense.