Jogging the memory

A letter in last week’s paper spoke about the need to “jog my memory” on Thames Valley park & ride bus service, written by Liberal Democrat – sorry, Wokingham Borough Partnership - councillor Prue Bray. It demonstrates a favourite tactic of the Council’s new administration: if the facts don’t fit, just make it up.

Let’s look at what I said. I said that the service was commercially run by Reading Buses before the pandemic and had been financially supported by the Council during COVID. I also said that WBC had provided bridging funding in the hopes that the number of passengers would increase after the pandemic, but it didn’t. I said that it was down to Reading Buses as to whether they wanted to maintain the service despite the low number of passengers. All of this was confirmed, in the same article which Cllr Bray refers to containing my comments, by her colleague Cllr Paul Fishwick.

I then added that it is up to the new Lib Dem-led administration to decide if it wants to continue with subsidising the service. That is Cllr Bray’s choice and that of her Executive colleagues, who I understand continue to call themselves Liberal Democrats.

If Cllr Bray can’t remember words she has just read, if she has forgotten that her Group is now in charge of the Council, and if she fails to recall that her colleagues have the power to continue to subsidise the park & ride bus service, then I’m afraid she’s the one who needs a ‘memory jog’.

Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, l eader of the Opposition and the Conservative Group, and

ward councillor for Hillside, Wokingham Borough Council

I have seen Clive Jones saying in many places that he wants more working together with all political parties – but at every opportunity he shuts out the Conservatives, who are the only Opposition party on WBC.

It’s worth pointing out too that the Lib Dems don’t have a majority of councillors, and the Conservatives in fact have more.

So a minority party which isn’t even the biggest is controlling everything. No matter what your politics, surely we can agree that isn’t democratic?

Name and address supplied