Gallery of mayors is not a pretty picture

9:48am Monday 28th January 2002

A PROJECT to display photographs of every Chesham mayor on the walls of the council chambers has fallen through because it could put couple's off having their weddings there.

Chesham Town Council's planning and general purposes committee called a halt to the plan after members agreed faces of old mayors on the walls of the town hall which has a licence for weddings would be 'too much' for couples planning their big day there.

Cllr Sue Jordan (Lib Dem, Hilltop) said: "We have a new mayor every year. This whole place will be absolutely littered with faces.

"If one is thinking of marketing this place for weddings the thought of the faces of all those mayors is too much.

"I'm certain for the mayors it would be very nice to have these photographs in their own family albums, but I think the rest of us should be spared."

The town council, which formed in 1974, has been working on the project for some time, but photographs taken before 1990, when the town guide was first published, have proved hard to come by.

Town clerk Mike Kennedy said: "The situation prior to 1989 has been difficult to resolve and indeed has been met with outright hostility from one former mayor, who refuses to send a photograph, arguing that the whole project is 'a total waste of money'."

Town mayor Tony Reed said the best place for the mayors' faces would be where the town tapestry hangs, behind a curtain where no one can see it.

And Cllr Pauline Wilkinson (Con, Newtown) said: "I've never heard such a lot of rubbish.

"It's expensive and time-consuming."

The town council will opt instead for a photo album of the mayors, sparing Chesham taxpayers the cost of mounting and framing 28 photographs.

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