Since our last full Council meeting, we have lost familiar faces and gained new ones.
Thank you to the former councillors of all parties for their service to the Borough and their time and commitment. All ward councillors work hard for their residents and give up their evenings attending meetings like this, often combining their role with careers and families.
Welcome to the new councillors. I hope you enjoy your time on the council. Thank you also to my shadow executive for their work on behalf of residents.
Finally thank you also to all the residents who voted.
Local elections matter. They effect vital services that we all rely on. At a time when democracy around the world is looking more fragile it is important that we don’t take hard-won freedoms for granted, but instead exercise our rights. If you don’t vote, your voice can’t be heard.
I would also like to congratulate Beth and Adrian as the new mayor and depyty Mayor and Cllr Conway on becoming Leader of his Group and Leader of the Council.
He is a dedicated local councillor who has served our Borough for twenty-two years, since 1994, with a short break. In my previous dealings with him I have always found him to be fair and honest.
He has spoken of wanting a better future for our Borough.
I too share that commitment and where we agree the Conservative Group will support and work with colleagues of other parties. And I look forward to doing so.
Wokingham Borough voters have again delivered a Council of no overall control. No one party has a majority.
We will continue to offer robust opposition where we disagree as residents expect us to. I said that local elections matter, and what goes on in this Chamber matters. Debate should be heard, and the voices of residents should be heard. Last year too often that was not the case.
Twice the previous Lib/Lab administration tried to introduce constitutional changes that, if they had passed, would have meant councillor’s questions would not have been heard. Petitions brought by thousands of residents have been ridiculed, consultations and even a resoluton of full council have been ignored, and debates quashed.
At the same time, the last year has shown a worrying lack of transparency, and a growing trend for being selective with facts. Despite repeatedly being asked since last summer, the administration has still yet to publish the business case for parking charges or the waste changes.
Cllr Jones went to great pains to tell residents that bins will be collected weekly under their new policy, even though he knows full well that household waste and non-food recycling, which is what most people class as bins, will not be taken away every week. And at the election, despite asking for residents’ votes, the Liberal Democrats didn’t produce a manifesto or leaflets with any indication of what they’ll do over the coming year. Asking for a blank cheque or a lack of ideas…?
As a historian Cllr Conway will know all too well that in exchange for taxation the people expect something in return. But the record of the Liberal Democrats and their Labour coalition partners is residents pay more but get less.
Council Tax is up. Fees are up. Parking charges are set to double.
In exchange, bins will be collected less, fewer potholes will be fixed, no action on the solar farm. And our residents have been let down with no progress on achieving sustainable housing numbers, and no movement on producing a new Local Plan to protect against speculative development. We wait to see whether Labour’s new national policy of allowing developers free reign to build in the green belt is adopted by their Liberal Democrat partners.
But at least our residents can take comfort that more money has been found for the Council to promote all the wonderful things it’s not doing for them – spending on the Council’s PR is up.
The Conservatives believe in putting residents at the heart of Council policies, strong finances, action on planning, working with communities, and ensuring that people are free to choose, not forced to meet the ideological whims of politicians. We will continue to put forward our positive plan for making Wokingham Borough an even better place for residents, local businesses and future generations.
