Kerbing enthusiasm for paving around bizarre stone due to cost

At a meeting held last Monday, parish councillors discussed two options to put pavement around the stone – valued at £39,000 and £14,000 respectively.

Parish council chairman Victor Wright said: “We can’t afford either. For the moment we’ll leave it as it is and hope the whiteness dies down.

“The trouble is when you start dealing with highways, you start to get massive bills.”

Mr Wright said the council received a precept of £24k from Aylesbury Vale District Council and had some Section 106 money, but it would be difficult to justify the expenditure.

“One issue at the moment is a lack of buses and the village wants high-speed broadband. We can’t spend over 50% of our budget on this.”

The reaction to the freshly painted lines had been “pretty negative”.

Mr Wright added: “It was unwanted, not needed – that’s the general opinion. People think it’s a bit of overkill.

“The whole thing has snowballed because of one silly motorist. Bucks County Council should have thrown it out.”