Lib Dems ‘to be a real alternative to the shenanigans in Westminster’

READING’S Lib Dems offer a real alternative to the “grubby self-serving shenanigans” taking place in Westminster right now, according to its party leader, Cllr Meri O’Connell.

She says that on May 5, voting for Lib Dem candidates in Reading’s local elections should be “something positive”.

“If you really want to send the government a message, if you want them to know that the current two-party system of bickering and vested interests is no longer acceptable, then vote Lib Dem,” she said, adding that in Reading the party offers a good alternative to Labour.

“We’re going to keep pushing for sensible policies that will help Reading play its part in tackling the biggest problems of our age, like the climate emergency and the cost-of-living crisis.

“We want to see better home insulation, reduce fuel costs, and increase tree planting across the borough, making this a warmer, greener, and more sustainable place to live and work.”

On housebuilding, Cllr O’Connell said that Reading has some unique problems, as a lot of big developments were taking place in neighbouring boroughs, right on the borders.

“Here in Tilehurst (her ward seat), we’ve seen West Berkshire Council build on Reading’s boundaries, which is completely legal,” she said. “What that means is the new residents use Reading’s services as Newbury is too far away.

“They’ll use the doctors, the roads, the infrastructure, and consider themselves to be part of Reading. However, we don’t receive any council tax from them, it goes back to West Berks. In effect, it means Reading is subsidising people from other areas.”

The party also wants the council to better manage land used for housing.

“The Lib Dems would always push for Reading to build on brownfield sites,” she said. “We understand why developers don’t want that, as it’s more expensive with the costs of clearing the land first, but these are spaces that are already brownfields, they’re not green open spaces.

“In an urban area like Reading, these green spaces are becoming increasingly precious.”

The party wants Reading to have a balanced housing market, with an increased number of council homes.

“For that, we’d need an increase in funds from the government,” Cllr O’Connell said.

“We’d also very much like to see the council’s sticking to its quotas for affordable housing so that when any new developments go up, an increased percentage of those properties need to be as affordable rates.

“Otherwise, you know, when our children grow up, they can’t afford to stay living in the area that they grew up in.”

The party would also seek to tackle the problem of homes being left empty, calling for the owners to pay a premium in council tax to encourage them to put the home back on the market.

On roads, Cllr O’Connell said she had had first-hand experience of the problems caused by the recent roadworks in Caversham, but said the issue – utility companies causing the closures – was a national problem, and required a different approach.

“You travel to other parts of the world, for example, in Canada, they the utilities companies have to hire the road off of the local council, and they pay for how long they are working on it,” she said.

“They pay for how many lanes they close off, how many metres of that lane they close off, they pay different prices depending on what time of day they close it off. So, what you have over there is you have works that take place incredibly quickly. Because otherwise, the utilities companies pay extra for it.”

Such a system could work well over here, she felt.

A low emission zone, one of the party’s manifesto promises, is not a way of penalising motorists, she said.

“There are times when I could have left my car at home, but I take it because it’s convenient, not because I actually need to take it,” she continued.

“Those are the types of journeys that we’re hoping a low emission zone would discourage.

“What it would actually mean is that for those people who do need to use their cars, for whom there isn’t an alternative and would actually be travelling a lot faster and a lot more efficiently. So, it could actually ended up having a very positive effect on those people who need to use their cars.”

The party would also push for 20mph zones in residential areas, aimed to making traffic flow more easily, and see more people confident in cycling.

“It’s gong to feel safer,” Cllr O’Connell explained, saying that people would not make the same errors when they’re travelling at speed.

To help tackle the cost of living, the Lib Dems would boost insulation in Reading’s homes and council properties.

“I get frustrated at the argument that we need more fossil fuels, we need more energy, when actually if we could reduce the amount that we’re using, people’s bills will not just go down in the short term, they will go down permanently,” she said.

Council finances require support from central government, and this is something Reading’s Lib Dems would like to see change.

“I think that councils of all parties have been calling on this current Conservative government to take seriously the problems that local councils are facing, we know that we have to provide certain statutory services, otherwise, we will be in breach of the law, which means that any service that is in statutory service that we don’t have to legally provide is actually in danger at the moment.

“I really, really dislike the way that we have to rely on short term funding streams, for example, the roads at the moment, hopefully you have been seeing they’ve been improving.

“We’re partway through a £9 million three-year grant that we had to improve roads. But what do we do at the end of that three years? How do we maintain the progress that we’ve been made? Or do we just have to wait for another 10 years before some funding comes in, and we see all of our roads go back to the state that they were in in the first place?

“It’s all very short termism.”

To help cashflow, Reading’s Lib Dems would want to sell off surplus council buildings, in a bid to help balance the books.

“These are very peculiar times we’re living in, and I think we’ve only really seen the beginnings of the cost-of-living crisis, I think it’s going to get a lot, lot worse before it gets any better,” she explained.

The party, if elected, would seek to run a red tape challenge, aimed at trying to save money.

“We do have a lot of antiquated roles, we have a lot of hoops that have to be jumped through. And there again, needs to be a very holistic look at these kinds of things. Where where the impacts of how one thing affects another, you know, needs to be looked at as a whole, and streamlines wherever possible,” Cllr O’Connell said, adding some things would not be cut, such as domestic abuse services.

Unsurprisingly, given she belongs to the Lib Dems, she is keen to see a change in political governance.

“I do believe Reading Labour have been there for a very long time - 30 odd years,” she said. “And I don’t think they tolerate challenge. There are only a certain few on the Labour benches that ever raised their voices.

“And in the 10 years, I’ve been doing this, I’ve never once seen any member of the Labour group either abstain or vote against their party whip. And coming from a party that encourages different viewpoints, I find that quite peculiar.

“When I’m given new information, when I’m offered an alternative way of seeing something, you know, I would like to think that I’m open to changing my point of view and coming at it from a new, fresh point of view.

“I don’t think we’ve had freshness and new points of view in Reading for a very, very long time. And that’s a shame.”