Ringing the changes in action – and culture
Royal Borough: The council’s new leader outlines his immediate priorities
The leader of the council has laid out his top priorities and immediate actions heading up his administration.
Election promises were made to revisit unpopular aspects of the Borough Local Plan (BLP) including Maidenhead Golf Course – and the wheels are now in motion.
Also on the agenda are tackling ‘toxic’ council culture, ‘urgent’ action on Broadway car park and revisiting some key planning strategies that the new administration think are on the wrong track, such as the tall buildings document.
Council culture
New leader Simon Werner’s first area of concern is ‘the culture of the council’.
“There’s been a lot of toxicity over the last four years, caused in most part by the Conservatives. We see it on Facebook all the time and many residents have complained about it,” he said.
“It’s OK for us to disagree strongly but not when it goes into personal assassinations that are beyond decency.”
That was the reasoning behind seeking a mixed-party cabinet, he said (see right).
This week, it came to light that the monitoring officer believed a former Lib Dem councillor was repeatedly ‘bullying’ towards council staff (see p4).
In her report, she highlighted that officers don’t always feel comfortable raising concerns about councillors.
“If that’s the case, that’s a culture problem that’s got to change,” said Cllr Werner. “If officers have a problem with councillors, they must feel able to raise those issues.”
He said the atmosphere at the council had been ‘unpleasant’ for years and this ‘comes from the top’.
Housing and the BLP
The Lib Dems are sticking to their plans to revisit the BLP and try to get housing numbers reduced.
Last month, former council leader Andrew Johnson was told by the Government’s housing department that its BLP remained legal and the council could not make changes until new legislation is passed officially relaxing housing targets.
But Cllr Werner says he plans to respond to that letter, highlighting that the inspector questioned the housing targets and the electorate have made their feelings known on the matter.
Meanwhile, a meeting with officers next week will ‘discuss the possibility of rewriting’ the BLP.
He also wants to review planning guidance – the council’s tall buildings strategy, climate strategy and Biodiversity Action Plan.
Meetings are also planned in the next couple of weeks to discuss the proposed Nicholsons 25-storey tower block, Spencer’s Farm and
Broadway car park.
Planning matters take a while so Cllr Werner says the council is getting these kicked off ‘as quickly as possible.’
Roads and parking
Cllr Werner says that a lot of people have contacted him since the election about roads and streets, and the improvements they want to see there.
The new administration is setting about taking a closer look at contracts, with a view to move more in-house.
In particular, the street care inspectors are currently employed by the highways contractor, which Cllr Werner would like to change, so the contractor is not ‘marking its own work’.
“Contracts at the council have got to be well done and we have got a contract working group with contract specialists,” he said.
For Broadway car park, the council is awaiting the results of a structural engineer’s report assessing the condition of the structure – and is ‘keen to get it as soon as possible’.
“The town centre is really on its knees and there’s a real sense of urgency,” Cllr Werner said.
Climate action and communities
The new council will look to work more closely with community groups, including the environmental ‘Wild’ groups (Wild Maidenhead, Wild Cookham, etc).
“We’ll be using this outside expertise to really inform our plan. The previous administration didn’t really want to engage much with these groups,” said Cllr Werner.
Over the next year, he hopes that his party can begin to reverse the tide of ‘cynicism’ about climate action from the public, which he believes was caused by the previous administration.
Cllr Werner also wants to support Norden Farm more consistently and reconnect with community groups and charities.
He said: “My background is in charity consultation. I really get charities in a way that perhaps the previous administration didn’t.”
W In response to Cllr Werner’s ‘toxicity’ claims, former leader Andrew Johnson said: “I absolutely refute any claims that my administration fostered a toxic culture.
“As the recent LGA peer review showed under my leadership the council made great progress in tackling a previously poor culture within the organisation and this included member relations.”
He said his own members received ‘a great deal of online abuse and harassment’, some of which had to be reported to the police.