At Wokingham Borough Council’s meeting, last week – I shared a speech on the government’s response to Ukrainian refugees. It’s not that we don’t have people wanting to help, here in Wokingham, it is that our governments response to the crisis is too slow and cumbersome – meanwhile people are suffering and dying.
I am proud of our Town Council. During the last year and a half, we have done our best to support everyone during lockdown. Given out grant money to those that needed it, fought to keep our parks clean and clear of rubbish, kept our market open for food sales, installed flowers and the Christmas tree, redeployed our staff to help out with vaccinations and carried on with the full democratic process and creatively thought of ways to support our town events.
Now that the shops are open again, we are doing our best to promote the town and make it a friendly place to visit. We are more than just banners and flowers.
During Lockdown you have to work a little harder to find the positives. Well yesterday, was one of those. After a lot of delay due to Covid 19 and getting safely signoffs, the developers of the Matthewsgreen estate were finally able to open the new children’s playground. There could be no ‘official’ opening, but I was lucky enough to be there when they did it.
Last Thursday, the 18th February, Wokingham Borough Council had its Budget Council meeting. This is the meeting where the Council set the Council Tax and decide on its spending for the the next year, with a plan for the following years.
The meeting was a four hour long virtual meeting, starting at 8pm- and after a couple of hours, it disintegrated to something similar to Handforth Parish Council’s efforts.
Our Council Tax payments need to go up, because of the large, Covid sized hole in the Council Finances. There has been no income from Leisure centres, only a tiny amount from car parking and licensing and the central government funding has not covered everything that we needed to do.
The key things that came out of this meeting were:
1) The Council’s borrowing will pass £3/4 Billion by the end of 2024.
2) There is no Covid Recovery Plan
3) Locating the right information in the Council Finance reports is a complex task.
4) Wokingham Town Centre Regeneration has, so far, not contributed any money to Wokingham Borough Council.
5) The current leadership ignores the constitution, which there to protect our residents too.
These are all things that we would seek to change if we were to get control of this council.
Imogen Shepherd-DuBey – Wokingham Borough Council
It was an eventful meeting, this month. Not only did the Council Leader resign as leader, one other Conservative Councillor went independent. We had a debate on the Barkham Square development, public questions about how Brexit will affect Wokingham Borough and the development of the land next to the Thames.
I managed to ask a question about how we can best manage the graffiti problems in the Woosehill Subway, the road resurfacing in Joel Park and why Jubilee Avenue was missed. I also raised the concerns about the lack of input into the sign off large contracts.
We debated and agreed three motions – a long awaited requirement to include sprinklers in ALL new school buildings, a motion on the handling protected trees and lastly, writing a letter from the Borough about our need to keep our Post Office services and protecting their jobs.
Some may think of these small tasks as trivial things, but they are far from it. It is the little things that blight the lives of our residents. Over the years, I have reported numerous potholes, leaks, graffiti, streetlights, broken equipment, and missing signs. The most severe being escalated and followed up directly to get them fixed or replaced as quickly as possible.
Long pot hole on St Paul’s Gate
Water leak and pot hole on Emmbrook Road
Missing sign on Arthur Road
Another year over, but a new year to look forward to.
It is always a time of reflective thinking, spending time with friends and family and enjoying a change of pace for while. I hope everyone can find something to celebrate.
It is with this thought, we have given the Wokingham Liberal Democrats website an overhaul. It is still work in progress and it will be developed more over the next few months. But, most people agree that it is much better.
Health & happiness to you all!