There are some advantages and disadvantages to living and working locally here at The Bucks Herald.
One overwhelming positive is not only being able to report on our community (warts and all) but to be personally part of the ups and downs your hometown has to endure.
It is fair to say hardly a day goes by without me being approached by someone keen to engage in some sort of debate and rant on what’s going wrong with Aylesbury Vale.
A sound bite of public opinion which has influenced my opinions expressed in this column.
I have always tried to take a positive view on local politics, stresses and strains encouraging debate as a healthy, intelligent way of viewing the glass as half full – not half empty.
This has meant that since coming to The Bucks Herald as editor I have tried to encourage a mix of news and views that not only includes the town’s outstanding achievements but also the more gritty hard news agenda as well.
Recently however a grey cloud of negativity has descended on the town brought about by a series of events. The daily torments of the Tring Road traffic chaos, the Hampden Fields housing wrangle, fears over fracking and now the revelations of the true impact of HS2 on our area to name but a few downers.
Even a report out this week about how to revitalise town centre economies fails to strike a chord here in Aylesbury and although we should applaud the plans to make Aylesbury a cafe culture and centre for the arts etc it is difficult to head off the critics who say there is just too little to do in our town.
I guess adding a few supermarkets and a hotel is a positive start but it doesn’t solve the problem.
Talk about plans for thousands more homes in the Vale in the coming years may well excite our councils, but it doesn’t do it for me as it is clear our schools, hospital and roads will not keep pace.
Even the drivers in the town have been dissed this week by a report saying they are some of the worst in the country.
Of course most of us will keep our peace and maintain a very British stiff upper lip about it all but I can tell you the people of Aylesbury Vale are angry.
In France there would be protests on the streets but here we maintain our dignity and hope our political masters will see sense. For one week only folks I am afraid my glass is most definitely half empty.