A Bucks Free Press campaign is embarrassing council officials after the bungled opening of a £108,000 town centre fountain.

Wycombe District Council proudly unveiled its new water feature on January 8, with dignitaries posing for photographs at the site.

But, just hours later, the fountain was shut off due to ‘technical glitches’.

It transpired the council had pressed ahead with the pomp of the official opening even though the work had not been completed.

Things went from bad to worse a week later when it was revealed that the firm which built the attraction had gone into voluntary liquidation.

The council openly admitted the fountain would be shut off indefinitely until someone else could be found to fix the remote control on/off mechanism.

But the council was not so open when the Free Press asked how much public money had been handed over to the company that had gone into liquidation.

First, officers simply failed to respond to the paper’s inquiry. Then, after repeated phone calls from reporters, they issued a statement saying it was a matter between two private companies – the main contractors and the ones in liquidation.

Editor Steve Cohen said: “The council accused me of having a bee in my bonnet. However, we were merely trying to find out a simple fact for taxpayers.

“The good news is that everyone in the town and district is talking about this story and appears to be on our side.

“Our reporter James Cox has pursued this with intelligence and vigour, being fair at all times but never letting the council off the hook.

“We have carried several front page stories already, even though the council were evidently hoping that their silence would make us give up. This is an excellent example of how a good community campaign should be followed through.”

The paper pressed the point and also spoke to Buckinghamshire County Council, which was overseeing the project. Both councils then admitted they didn’t actually know how much cash had gone to the liquidated company. They didn’t even know who was going to finish the work.

The Free Press campaigned for an answer, and the mayor of High Wycombe paraded around the deserted fountain with a placard asking how much cash had ‘gone down the drain’.

Despite all of this, the district council is still unable weeks later to give a definitive answer.

It issued a statement saying the contract was coming in within budget and that the contractual issues had been ironed out. But there was still no word on when the fountain would be up and running.

The mayor branded this as ‘perfect gobbledegook’ in another Page 1 story.

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