‘Conservatives will put Reading, its prosperity, its economy, and its people first in everything we do’

ACONSERVATIVE-RUN Reading Council could sort out the number of homes that have to be built in the town – because they would be better placed to talk to the current government.

Cllr Clarence Mitchell, the leader of Reading Conservatives, said that if they were elected to power on May 5, they would have a better chance of having its voice being considered fairly in Whitehall.

“Traditionally, a Labour Council tends to be somewhat, shall we say, antagonistic towards a Conservative government. As a result, the collaborative discussions that should be taking place often don’t really happen in as the effective way they should,” he said.

The party would want to build more social housing, saying that the 300 homes over four years was “a little unambitious” and if the Conservatives were in charge, that number would be increased.

“Reading has fantastic potential,” Cllr Mitchell said. “It certainly does need more affordable homes, and it needs more family homes as well. The question is where and how, and what level of community support.

“This administration has been in charge for a very long time, and they are showing signs of being somewhat complacent, and frankly tired.”

An example of this, Cllr Mitchell said is how Reading Labour ‘turned on a sixpence’ over plans to build homes on Reading Golf Club. Last year, the scheme was turned down, this a revised proposal was accepted.

“The vast majority of people in the ward, and in the area, opposed it, the sheer scale of the development. By approving it, Labour has made many people in Emmer Green, Caversham and the areas north of the river, absolutely despondent that their views are just not listened to by this administration,” Cllr Mitchell said.

“We would make sure that community support exists for housing.

“We’re not against housing per se, but it has to have community support for it to be a successful scheme that benefits not just those people who are able to live there, but the community they’ll be moving into.”

So if Reading Conservatives have such a strong view on housing, why isn’t it mentioned in their manifesto?

Cllr Mitchell said that the party supports the development of brownfield sites, and they are against unsustainable development.

“All our candidates are more than happy to discuss that in greater detail, as with any of the policy areas that we touch on in our manifesto. It’s not that we’re not including it, it is simply one of many policies that we would want to bring to Reading to improve life for everybody here.

“We will always put Reading, its prosperity, its economy, and its people first in everything we say and do.”

Roads is a topic mentioned in the party’s manifesto, under a section headed transport and infrastructure. The party feels that Reading Labour has taken a stance that is hostile towards motorists.

“Our vision is for pedestrians, bus users and cyclists to continue enjoying their lifestyle and the way that they choose to get around, we fully support active travel,” Cllr Mitchell said. “We also support the poor car user.

“For too long, most drivers, many of whom are working people that need to get about for their business, tell us that they feel victimised by this council.”

He said this includes cycle lanes being brought in “that frankly don’t work” such as in Sidmouth Street, while more work needed to be done to tackle roadworks, calling for “basic planning” to take place, citing the roadworks in Caversham as a recent example, causing huge tailbacks.

“We would plan that, should we be in charge, important work is done on a realistic basis, such as overnight, at quieter periods, and at weekends.”

Another policy would be working to champion a third bridge over the River Thames.

“As a Conservative-led council, we would be in a much stronger position to negotiate with surrounding Conservativeled councils, for them to understand the rationale behind it, and how it would alleviate the congestion that, frankly, is endemic in Reading, always has been, and it needs to be rectified,” he said.

“In essence, we want to see the car, the driver, being able to cohabitate successfully with all of the other means of transport that we already have.”

On the cost of living, Cllr Mitchell took exception to suggestions that Conservatives don’t care about the issue.

“We are acutely aware of the cost-ofliving crisis that’s facing us all. It is not down to the Conservative government.

The Labour literature that I’ve seen most recently calls it the Tory cost of living crisis, which is an appalling slur. It’s just not true,” he said, pointing out that it was a global set of issues.

Even so, the government had been taking steps to tackle things, such as raising the National Insurance threshold which would make 30 million people better off by £330 a year. Others would be helped by the Council Tax discount, the 5p reduction in fuel duty on petrol, an increase in the national living wage, and changes to the Universal Credit taper.

He added: “Labour is charging residents the highest council tax in Berkshire. Why is that when Conservative-run councils are charging a lower council tax, or lower increases and providing even better services?

“A central plank of our manifesto is that we would always fight for a lower council tax here in Reading. People do not deserve to be charged so much for the level of service they receive.

“We do see the pressures that everyone is facing, I know many people are very, very worried about how they are going to make ends meet. Locally we will do all we can. The one thing that would be in our power is to make sure your council tax bills come down.”

With council finances, Cllr Mitchell acknowledged that the government had reduced the grant sent to Reading in recent years: “We have to live within the real world - and the real world is that the government is making those cost cuts for efficiency reasons,” he said.

“We would continue to argue for a greater share of the pie, if you like, for Reading. Our scale of our population justifies a larger grant funding, and that’s a discussion that we would have to have with Mr Gove.

“But we also argue that locally money can be spent better. This year, the council presented itself as running a balanced budget with everything is wonderful. The reality is the council was only able to do so because of covid support grants from central government. So, we’re attacked for cutting the monies, but it’s gratefully received to balance the budget, but no credit is given.

“There are an awful lot of assumptions being made about money that will be coming in from various sources in the budget. And that’s why we didn’t support it this year.”

He said new systems being brought into the council would help with its accounts, but the extra auditing fees have amounted to nearly £2 million.

“That’s your money, it’s not the council’s. That could have gone towards keeping council tax lower,” he said. “Reading needs to manage its finances better rather than saying it’s all central government.”

Cllr Mitchell said that if the Conservatives were elected to run the council on May 6, the first thing he would do would be to take stock of the council’s situation, meeting with senior officers to ensure he had a “complete snapshot”.

“That would be a performance improvement plan to assess where things are working, and where they’re not working. And then we would focus on delivering the priorities that we’ve outlined in our manifesto.”

He added: “If the good people of Reading are generous enough to give us the opportunity to run the council, they can rest assured that we will not rest in making Reading an even better place to live for everyone.”