Lib Dem leader’s alternatives to debt
Oh dear, I seem to have upset Cllr Whittle (Letters, November 30).
Interestingly he did not counter the level of debt figures, he just said that some borrowing could generate financial returns.
That is true, others may not!
Our main concern is the rapid and huge increase in the level of borrowing that this Council is now planning (£271million by 2019/20). It was further increased by £100M at the recent full Council Meeting, so the total is now nearing £400million. (Cllr Whittle being one of the gang of four who has oversight of this new fund – Council reports, The Wokingham Paper,
November 30).
Cllr Whittle also complained that the Liberal Democrats offer no solutions. I thank him for giving me the opportunity to counter this argument.
Readers of The Wokingham Paper may remember that the Liberal Democrats launched the first phase of our local manifesto at the end of September (which was printed in this paper). This is titled HOMES FOR LOCAL PEOPLE.
The Liberal Democrats believe that many local people are being ignored by Wokingham Borough Council and the developers. I have been approached by many parents who say: “We still have our adult children living with us and they have nowhere they can afford to live”. Many of these children are in their 20’s, 30’s and even some in their 40’s.
Our proposal is to use Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) land to build one- and two-bedroom affordable homes specifically for local Wokingham Borough people (i.e. yourselves).
By using WBC land these homes can be cheaper as a result. Many residents have been left on the Housing Waiting list for years with little or no hope of getting a home. This is we feel the single most important issue for young people and families a like.
We also intend to help the older residents of the borough. We know many of you want to move to a smaller property, particularly a bungalow, but these are in short supply. Our proposal is to build purpose built smaller bungalows (with small gardens) designed for someone to live for the remainder of their life.
By providing these bungalows we believe this would make 2/3/4 bedroom homes available for families as well as providing older parents with a financial benefit that can be used to either provide capital for their children (to put down as a deposit for a home), or to cover care costs, some holidays and the like.
By focusing on the local need, the council will not have to provide as much additional infrastructure than if more new people moved in to the area. We believe this is also much better use of any borrowing that would be required. For example we would not need to build so many roads, or schools and there would not be the same level of pressure on Doctors surgeries as many of you already live here.
We do not think it makes sense to focus on attracting lots of people from other parts of the country to Wokingham borough when our main priority is providing homes for you the local residents.
This is where we think the local Conservatives have got it totally wrong.