A tale of two more manifestos

THERE’S an election brewing and it’s due on Thursday, May 3. And what’s different about this election is that two of the political parties have published their policies and plans for the future of the borough.

After last week’s comparison of Liberal Democrat and Conservative manifestos for the Wokingham Borough elections, this week shows how the Green and Labour manifestos measure up.

It’s important to keep in mind that that

51 of the 52 seats on the Borough Council are currently held by Conservative / Liberal Democrat / Independent Councillors. So while the Labour and Green manifestos have a completely different structure and approach, they’re being compared here in the same format as last week’s were.

House Building

Green: Provide access to decent, affordable and well insulated housing by working for more council housing and by licensing landlords.

Labour: “Developer Action Plan” – Wokingham Borough Council to measure developer performance on land banks, timing and build quality of developments. Also, study better legal and regulatory compliance on developers.

Social Housing

Green: N/a

Labour: Maximise the uptake of any change in legislation to build more council houses in order to reduce the housing benefit bill for tax payers and help make all houses less costly.

Regeneration

Green: Invest more in local shopping areas, encourage variety in our local shops and support locally sourced, affordable food.

Labour: Make town centre premises accessible to all. When current works finish, consider Saturday pedestrianisation of parts of Wokingham town centre and try to restore Wokingham’s market feel.

Also – make Woodley a more desirable destination.

Roads & Traffic

Green: Cut congestion and pollution. Boost walking and cycling through the introduction of 20mph zones where people live and work. Protect green space from crass, ill-thought-out development, and oppose Labour’s plans for a road beside our river.

Labour: Build roads before large housing developments are started and investigate the practicality of a Finchampstead Road by-pass. Expand the footpath and cycle network, re-introduce the school crossing patrols.

Also – Restore the bus services in Earley and Woodley and introduce free bus travel for those under 25.

Environment & Leisure

Green: Stand up for public services and oppose cruel austerity. Support public services such as libraries, swimming pools and arts venues.

Reduce the amount of waste, fly tipping and litter.

Push for proper disposal of food waste, reclaim energy through anaerobic digestion and introduce kerbside glass collection.

Promote a Greater Reading Artists Network (GRAN) to support culture and heritage.

Labour: Strengthen the Trading Standards and Environmental Protection teams.

Schools & Education

Green: The council to be put back in control of school place planning and end the free-school experiment. Fight the mandatory change of schools into Academies.

Labour: Seek to maintain the ‘family’ of Wokingham schools and to offer the best possible value services to our schools. Also - campaign for better funding.

Health & Care

Green: Improve care by ensuring that carers get a Living Wage, end the misuse of zero-hour contracts, lengthen the rushed 15-minute care visits.

Labour: Establish an Older People’s Forum to influence the development of local services, particularly from WBC, and quantify the scope and value of free care services provided. Review provision and uptake of training for carers.

Finance & Fairness

Green: We’re delighted that our campaign for a Living Wage has resulted in Reading Borough Council becoming an Accredited Living Wage employer. Continue to support residents to organise community-building initiatives in their roads and support the ‘Big Lunch’ and ‘Play Streets’ projects.

Labour: Provide a fair deal to our communities living outside Wokingham town.

Hold genuine consultations with residents.

Invite MPs to attend council on a regular basis to publicly present what they’ve done about issues facing the borough.

The Last Word

So that’s it, over 12 pages of manifestos with nearly 2,000 words on past, present and future, all condensed to just one page of 500 words comparing the main policy ideas.

But if something’s unclear, or if you want to find out more about the manifestos, you can read all about them in one place because The Wokingham Paper is making them easy to access at www.wokinghampaper.co.uk/manifestos.

If you haven’t got access to a computer, please ask your local candidate(s) for a copy of their manifesto.

As ever, manifestos aren’t pick and mix and it’s rare that anyone agrees with absolutely all of one party’s policies – but just like choosing a car or a meal, it’s important that you have a choice and that you make it to suit your style and your tastes.

So if you really, really, liked one manifesto above the others but that party’s not standing in your ward, then I’m afraid you’ll either need to choose someone else, or move house and hope for the best next year.

Then again, if you don’t like bits of your favourite party’s manifesto, you can always let them know when they visit to canvas for your vote.

Short range and high volume works for some, but it can scare the visitor. But if you keep your opinions to yourself, ‘they’ won’t learn and ‘things’ won’t change.

We’re out of space for now, so next week will return with the Independent candidates’ policies.