Why I think Wokingham Borough Council are losing touch with people

On May 24, 2018 the leader of Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) Charlotte Haitham Taylor, said that: ‘For too many years, we have stood in this Chamber and said, ‘We cannot go on like this’, and yet we continued much as we have always done. If we truly want our Borough to continue to be a success for decades to come, we need to ensure that residents, including every one of us here, take more responsibility for our communities, and that this Council continues to respond to residents’ needs and deliver what they see to be important.’

Unfortunately I see little evidence of any progress on this worthy aim, the Council have public consultations on proposals and the way forward, but if the results are not what they want they are ignored and just steam ahead with their original intentions.

Recently WBC held a consultation on the proposal to remove the remaining eight lollipop persons and replace them with controlled crossings; overwhelmingly this was rejected by the public. Each lollipop person is paid approx. £4,000 p.a. as compared with the estimated cost of £40,000 for each controlled crossing. Based on this figure the total cost for the provision of all of the crossings will be £320,000.

This does not include the project management, maintenance or the replacement costs at their end of life.

At a Council meeting held on July 26, I asked Councillor Pollock, the Executive Member for Highways & Transport, if a cost benefit analysis had been carried out. He replied that a redesign was being undertaken and that the full cost benefit would be recalculated and this would be made public.

Nothing has been forthcoming!

Councillor Pollock has since said that they were being replaced because of safety reasons. This statement is extremely questionable and conflicts with the accident data for the period 2012 to 2016 from the Department of Road Transport.

I provided WBC with this data, which demonstrates that there were 458 fatalities on or within 50 meters, of all types of controlled crossing. This figure includes the seven fatalities that occurred on human controlled crossings (lollipop persons). In addition there were a further 28,988 recorded injuries.

WBC has decided to relocate the town’s library from its current position onto the proposed redeveloped Carnival Field. This new library will be both smaller and less accessible as the current one.

Earlier this year I attended a Council Commons Registration Committee meeting where local residents were trying to have part of Limmerhill declared a village green.

They were unsuccessful in their actions and have incurred high costs in pursuing Court actions. What concerned me was not only the decision, but also that the WBC’s Legal representative was sat next to the representative of Monopro, a developer who now owns the land. The two appeared to be working together in support of the developer.

Is it any wonder that the people of Wokingham question whether WBC have any interest in looking after the welfare and well being of the electorate and of families.

The other day I called in at Sheeplands to purchase some plants, it was so sad to see a once thriving nursery become a poor shadow of what it once was. Upon looking into why this had happened I found that it was as a direct result of WBC’s actions in prosecuting Sheeplands over a planning issue. They may be correct, but was it necessary for it all to go to the High

Court, particularly as the Judge concluded in her summing up:

‘That the situation so offends the court’s sense of justice that it must stay the proceedings to protect the integrity of the criminal justice system’.

WBC is appealing this decision.

In conclusion I cannot see how our Council can possibly think that they are doing their best for the Community which they serve and that the Leader of WBC seriously believes that she is honouring the statement she made back in May.

Our Borough has 54 Councillors, 42 of which are Conservatives; it is highly likely that within the next two years there numbers will be considerably reduced.

Indeed for the ‘Town’ wards it is highly likely that the Conservatives will be almost wiped out.

Although WBC will still be led by the Conservatives they will only do so because of their strength in the outlying areas.