The naked truth

FOLLOWING on from the letter from the leader of the Lib Dems two weeks ago, supporting the Tories, and the comments reported by the leader of the council last week, I wanted to outline the position of the real opposition on Wokingham Borough Council. The Labour group of councillors recognises that the Tory proposals to increase the number of houses built in the borough are unsustainable and unwanted.

There is a pressing need formuch more council housing to eliminate the current waiting lists, to have more people be able to access housing which can rented at a reasonable price, put downward pressure on private rental rates and cut the housing benefit bill.

The extra houses proposed by the Tories will not achieve any of these aims.

It is clear to that the main aim of the current Wokingham Borough Council campaign is to try and put clearwater between the policies of a

Tory government and the local Tory councillors who campaigned for the same government in the general election.

These proposals were clear to see for anyone who actually read the Torymanifesto. I presume our local Tory councillors DID read the manifesto.

The Tories are more concerned with protecting their council seats than protecting our borough and, once again, they are using the council to campaign for them.

Last year the same gang blew £50,000 on a waste of time a surveywhich had exactly the same purpose, again theywere backed by the Lib Dems.

That survey, we were told, would empower our council leader to talk to his Tory friends in government.

Well that ended well.

Cllr John Halsall has been reduced to threatening to parade naked in front of Dominic Cummings’Whitehall Bunker. Dominic will be focused on his data displays, not John’s.

Housing in the area is unaffordable due to high demand.

The Tories are trying to fix this problem by increasing supply – but they are ignoring the demand side.

Demand is high as the borough benefits from its location close to London, close to Heathrow and close to the M4.

To reduce demand in this area we need to better share out economic prosperity from the South East to other regions. We need to oppose developments that accelerate the concentration of prosperity in this area – such as a third runway at Heathrow.

Yet a fewmonths ago, almost every councillor outside the Labour group voted to support the third runway. This is an extreme form of cakeism.

The Tory consultation document presages disaster for the borough. The document itself seems to have been written in the belief that maximum repetition of the words “beautiful” and “data” will somehowmake everything fine.

The proposed revisions to the planning system, on top of changes introduced in the Business and Planning Act 2020, will rip up any semblance of local control.

The division of the borough into three zones – for protection, for growth and for renewal would see our tiny designated Green Belt protected, the continuing unsuitable conversions of offices and shops to flats and great swathes of the rest of the borough opened up formore housing.

Proposals to remove small developers from some rules combined with stricter rules around Section 106 and CIL payments increase the threat.

There is no good outcome to the borough from this plan.

Our local MPs do not need to be told this, they know it.

The ToryMPs have only just been elected on a manifesto which presumably they did not read either, but theymust nowwork against the government and get these plans changed.

The challenge facing our ToryMPs and councillors is that Dominic Cummings does not care what they think and Boris Johnson is too incompetent to act on what they think. They do not, John Halsall’s parade included, have a means to make them care.

Our local Tories – at all levels – need to start thinking about the ‘nuclear’ option – removing themselves from the Conservative party.

This, and only this, might have the required impact.

Until such time as the local Tories start to put our borough before their party, the Labour group of councillors will view the use of Wokingham Borough Council resources for what it is – Council Tax payers’ money being used to protect the seats of Tory councillors.