Sadly, I didn’t get elected to represent Emmbrook on the Borough Council, this year. But, I have been elected to Wokingham Town Council. I will also be joined by two independent candidates as well as a majority of Conservative candidates, some of which are also new to the role.
I have yet to see what work we can do, but I consider it an honour to be selected to serve out community.
I know I’m not the only one tearing my hair out over Wokingham’s traffic problems at the moment.
First, we have the modifications to Station Road & Shute End that are long over-running. The junction on the Oxford Road has been 
partially closed and the police are issuing tickets. The knock on effect is that frustrated car drivers are diving through the housing estates so they can avoid the area. Of course, this is causing new problems elsewhere.
Secondly we have the traffic light replacement work at the Showcase/Loddon Bridge roundabout. This appears to be being done at the busiest time of year for traffic! It is better now the lights have been actually turned off, but only after several failures and at least three accidents. But still, the traffic is queued up to down Lower Earley Way and down the M4 in the evenings, so much more than normal.
At the same time, work has been scheduled for the only other exit Wokingham has on to the motorway, at the Coppid Beech roundabout. With both major highway intersections in and out of the town having scheduled work at the same time, it seems to be extremely badly thought out…if thought about at all…..I wonder who at Wokingham Borough Council is co-ordinating this work?
In Wokingham we depend on our cars. For many areas, our public transport infrastructure is poor and doesn’t go where we need it to. So, our only realistic option is to drive. I feel that it has been the result of years of excessive house building, poor transport planning.
We need to begin to putting it right.
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!
SDL = Strategic Development Locations = an acronym that is being used a lot, but basically they are the areas that Wokingham Borough Council have allocated for housing development.
Imogen Shepherd-DuBey – viewing the site where new houses will be built.
As the plans stand, I have great concerns over some of the locations that have been chosen. Inadequate transport access and in areas that are connected to flooding, being the greatest points. The developers who want to build housing in these places will only be providing the minimum requirements. Will Wokingham Borough Council be providing the shortfall? At what cost?
Anyhow, many of us were at the SDL Meeting in the Town Hall, last Tuesday. Lots of people were standing as there clearly was a misunderstanding of the level of interest. There was lost of discussion regarding roads and transport congestion, followed by general despair over the extra 300 houses that were added and no-one had heard about up till that point.
I got to ask a question on affordable housing – as all I could see in the pictures were large detached homes. I also asked about school provision as I don’t feel enough have been planned to accommodate these extra homes and in the right places. When there is no school close by, people take to their cars, causing more road congestion.
It is also unclear how an outline plan can be drawn up for Matthewsgreen development, if they won’t finish the consultation on the relief road until the spring? More on this subject later….but right now I’d say take a look at what Prue Bray has written on this.
100 Years ago today, Britain declared war with Germany.
In the modern Wokingham, with so many new roads and neighbourhoods it can be hard to conceptulise what that meant. So, with help from Wokingham Remembers I have grabbed the image of the map of victims from around Wokingham station.
Clearly the older areas around Havelock and Barkham Road were quite strongly affected, while other roads seemed untouched – this is just because they didn’t exist in 1914.
These were all young men of Working age. Most of them had never been abroad before and didn’t have access to telephones, email or the instant information that we are used to today. Many women left behind took on roles traditionally done by men.
This isn’t just about those that died as 3/4 of those that went away, did return. But, many returned disabled and traumatised with experiences that shaped their lives forever.
However, one big thing did change from all of this. Most of the men who went to war did not have the right to vote, but by 1918 as a result of the war, this was extended to all men over the age of 21 and some women.
Out of adversity, can come great things.
Liberal Democrat Rosette
For the many people who have been wondering where I have been recently, I have been very busy fighting the local elections.
I’m afraid to say we did not win the Emmbrook ward by a mere 11 votes. The next time someone tell me they don’t think their vote counts, I can tell them most sincerely that it does, every single one of them does.
I grew up in Wokingham and went to school locally. I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years and got into the idea of local politics because I see the bad planning and other decisions being made without consideration of the long term affects on the area.
But, I am very thankful to the 1074 people who did put their hopes in me by putting the ‘X’ in box next to my name. I can only hope that it still sends the message to the incumbent Conservatives that I wanted to convey. Which is if they continue to build on our green lands without fully consulting properly with local residents, they cannot expect to do well in future elections.
Onwards an upwards!
Trophies from the Community Litter Pick.
This morning we set out with the Brownies, Scouts, Beavers and other volunteers on a Community Litter Pick and collected lots of bags of rubbish and recycling that Wokingham Borough Council then collected us. It was all going rather well, until we got hailed on! We have a light-hearted competition for the most unusual find and we found some construction equipment that had been abandoned in a hedge. But, I think we were surpassed by some scouts who found an old pram.
Late last year, I spoke at the well attended Wokingham Borough Council extraordinary meeting about Elms Field. You can find a full video of it made by one of Wokingham’s residents on Youtube and it is quite revealing into the processes of Wokingham Borough Council.(My questions are about 1. hour 31 in) I am also left wondering how many of these councillors do any real shopping, nowadays?
The debate was supposed to be politically indifferent, but I have long felt that the
Libdems protesting about the Tories Wasting millions of tax payers money.
Tories were inextricably linking the Elms Field development part to the whole Wokingham Town Centre Regeneration Project and were blaming the Liberal Democrats for supporting the protestors. They probably have to back it as a lot of money has already been spent on it. Unfortunately for them, we could see that there was overwhelming disquiet about building Elms Field coming from all corners, even without our help. We were just willing to listen.
It seems that selling the developments on the Elms Field land & properties was the key part of the plan to pay for the regeneration. Each component was not able to financially support itself alone and the repayment ideas do not seem very sound as it depends on being able to sell ALL the properties and rent out the stores at high rates. I also feel that this plan has been too rigid and moving so slowly that it has not adapted to the fact that in the mean time the world of shopping has changed.
Not long after the event and during the Christmas period, the planning application was withdrawn for review…I suspect it will stay quiet until after the Local Elections in May….
So, using all the public feedback we had received, this left the local Liberal Democrat Councillors set about proposing an alternate strategy. This was presented by Prue Bray at the last full council meeting and you can read what she wrote about it here . But, in the interest of freedom of information, Wokingham Borough Council is now releasing its own meeting videos, so you can even watch what was said here , about 16 minutes in.
The plan is still in draft and we would totally expect it to be under regular review, but basically it begins with the following:
NOT building housing on Elms Field, but investing in it and creating a modern space for everyone to use.
NOT borrowing £98 Million that Wokingham Borough Council Tax Payers will be paying for, for years.
NOT closing two ground level public car-parks in the town.
NOT stopping the town’s much needed makeover and providing enough money to do the job.
NOT building a supermarket where no-one wants it, but proposing an in demand modern alternative ‘Dark Store’ that will still provide jobs & services in a more suitable location.
Developing and supporting our Market and other small businesses in the town including giving them access to extra services needed in the modern digital shopping world.
Finding a better, but near-by space for the hotel.
Building a small amount of good housing on the brown field area to help support the regeneration.
Including some affordable housing in the town centre.
It has to downscale the original plan a little, but I feel it is much more reasonable approach in the current financial climate and it will help us both develop and preserve the finer aspects of our town and prepare it for the future in a more progressive way. Lets see if the local Tories are willing to adopt any of it….
I thought I’d like to write a short piece about the thousands of unpaid volunteers who are Town and Parish Councillors and something of what they achieve. A few years ago, I was attending a Parish Council meeting out of general interest, when they announced they didn’t have their full quota of councillors and were recruiting. So on the spur of the moment, I volunteered.
I have never regretted that decision, not one bit.
No-where else can you honestly do things that affect your local community so directly and in such positive ways. Planning applications, allotments, football pitches, play grounds, litter picking, fetes, christmas lighting etc are just some of the things that are part of the picture on Town and Parish councils. Via the council, I also get invited to represent my community at other poignant meetings and represent our interests. All for the price of two or three evenings a month.
I’d like to give a simple example of something we’ve done together. We were asked by some members of the public to provide a public toilet and we worked as a team to find the right place and the funding for one. I stuck to my guns about ensuring it was full accessible and had room for, wheelchairs, carers, prams etc and suggested appropriate locations. It took 18 months to build and we had quite a bunch of problems to overcome, but it was finally opened last year as a FREE public toilet. It is thankfully, well used and respected, but I bet the public have no idea what a battle it was.
Public toilet at Bearwood Recreation Ground
This week the flooding started on Christmas day and the police closed many of the key roads, instigating a volley of frantic e-mails and phone calls from people trying to find their way around the closed off areas, such as Loddon Bridge roundabout and the route between Shinfield and Arborfield. I guess in some ways we were all lucky it wasn’t a busy work day, but I suspect that everyone’s memory is too short on what happens on those days.
Winnersh Garden Centre – Dec 26th, 2013
Living close to both the Emmbrook and the Loddon rivers, every time it rains for more than a couple of days, I start wondering what is going to flood? What roads will be blocked, will I be able to get to work, is my car safe? I can also see that for some local residents, their thoughts are is my house safe, will I need to move my furniture or my family etc?
Many of the businesses and homes in the area are well prepared for the occasionally flood and have learned to live with the inconvenience. My main fear is that the demand for housing & development is so strong that we continue to build near the areas that flood, with only the minimal thought about where the water is to go and the wider effect.
The Environment Agency tells the developers that it will be OK and they decide that there is an acceptable risk, even though anyone who has lived here for any length of time, knows that these areas are prone to flooding. Never mind the fact that f we push the water away from the new developments and cover the areas that act as a big sponge, it then pushes the water into areas that have not flooded before.
Perhaps we should look at a different ideas for these areas, such as building houses on stilts, not concreting off the driveways and streets? Or how about returning some of the concreted areas back to a more natural state. Answers on a postcard please…..
Winnersh Park & Ride