Wokingham Borough Council’s Conservative Group has accused the new Liberal Democrat-Labour administration of “breaking promises before the ink was dry on the new Leader’s acceptance form”.
At the authority’s Annual Council meeting on 19th May 2022, Cllr Clive Jones, propped up by Labour and Independent councillors, immediately backtracked on a pledge they made earlier in the meeting to increase scrutiny and work in partnership with all parties on the Council.
Instead, the new coalition ‘super party’ refused to put another Conservative councillor on the body charged with overseeing the Council’s constitution so that it more accurately reflects the fact that Conservatives hold almost half of the Council’s seats.
At the same time, the coalition councillors ensured that they controlled all the scrutiny committees, while appointing themselves to every organisation that has a representative from the Council.
The new Mayor, previously a Liberal Democrat, abandoned the custom of the Civic Head’s impartiality and abstention from votes, time and again using her second casting vote in order to support her coalition allies and ram through the super group’s nominations.
Conservative councillors also hit out at coalition councillors’ attempts to claim that they still represented their old parties.
During the meeting, new Shadow Executive Member for Environment and Leisure, Cllr Norman Jorgensen, and former Mayor and Council Leader Cllr Keith Baker, both asked for official advice on the number of political groups on the Council.
Officers confirmed that there are two ‘Groups’ (parties) on the Council – the Conservatives and the Wokingham Borough Partnership Group.
This directly contradicts claims made by Cllr Prue Bray, former Liberal Democrat, and Cllr Rachel Burgess, former Labour councillor, that they still represented their old parties.
The new coalition means that voters who backed Labour and Independent are now represented by councillors who have pledged their allegiance to a Lib Dem led group.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, Leader of the Opposition and the Conservative Group, said:
“Clive Jones talked a good talk about transparency and co-operation, but he couldn’t manage to get through the meeting where he was appointed Leader without throwing it all in the bin.
“At the Annual Council meeting, I spoke of the need for all political parties to work together – that was the clear message that the voters sent when they left no party with a majority.
“It’s outrageous that coalition councillors are trying to deceive the public into thinking that they are representing their old parties, when the truth is that they’ve merged together to ensure that they gain a stranglehold control on the Council.
“Coalition councillors have completely ignored the democratic choice just made by Wokingham Borough residents.
“In an ideal world, they’d do the decent thing, resign their seats and seek re-election for their new party, but the very least they could do is be honest with the public.
“My fantastic Conservative team intend to stick with a spirit of co-operation, even if the new administration won’t.
“We’ll work with the coalition when we agree with them on a common cause, and hold them to account when we think things have gone wrong.
“If their first meeting in charge is anything to go by, someone needs to make sure they are actually keeping their promises.”
Following the local elections on 5th May 2022, the makeup of Wokingham Borough Council was:
- 26 Conservatives
- 23 Liberal Democrats
- 3 Labour
- 2 Independents
An agreement was reached on 17th May 2022 between the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Independents to merge into a new political group, or party, called the Wokingham Borough Partnership Group. This made the makeup of the Council as:
- 28 Wokingham Borough Partnership
- 26 Conservatives
Wokingham Borough Partnership councillors no longer sit as representatives of their previous parties. This new coalition group enables to hold a majority on all the Council’s committees and appointed their chairmen, including those designed to scrutinise the work of the administration.
On 28th April 2022, Cllr Clive Jones, the new Leader of the Council and the Wokingham Borough Partnership Group, was quoted in the Wokingham Today newspaper as saying:
“Decisions made by whoever runs the council need to be scrutinised properly to make sure they deliver true value for money [...] We want more meaningful scrutiny and would be prepared to look at offering the chairs of scrutiny committees to members of other political groups [...] We also want councillors of all parties to have a bigger opportunity to influence the delivery of improvements in their own communities and to play a fuller part in the way the council is run." [SOURCE: Wokingham Today, 28/04/22, column by Clive Jones].
