Your concerns are our concerns

MY Lib Dem colleagues and I have spoken to many residents across the borough over the last few months and weeks and we have heard what is concerning you in both national and local politics.

Many of the subjects raised with us are issues that Liberal Democrats have campaigned on recently, these are some of the priorities we will focus on.

Residents are very concerned about over-development in the Borough.

A few weeks ago I, along with several other Lib Dem councillors, went to the offices of The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Michael Gove) to deliver a petition asking for a reduction in the Conservative targets for extra housing in Wokingham over the next 20 years.

We pointed out to Mr Gove that over the last 40 years around 40,000 new houses have been built in Wokingham.

The space for sensible development is now limited, but the Conservatives are planning for another 16,000 in the next 20 years.

They are doing this while claiming large scale development is coming to an end in some parts of the Borough, a claim that is at best misleading.

We know some development locally is needed, particularly affordable housing, but the Conservative plans are not sustainable.

Another issue raised with us is violence, particularly against women and girls. We will seek White Ribbon accreditation for the Council and will encourage other organisations to do the same. Ending violence against women and girls is not controversial. It is a basic human right, and the Council must lead in tackling the root causes of it.

The accreditation we are

seeking is a gap analysis that will help the Council understand what it needs to do to help end this problem.

Liberal Democrats will be seeking a review of how specialist services are commissioned due to our concerns about the awarding of the domestic abuse contract to an organisation that has never directly provided domestic abuse support to victim-survivors before, which led to at least one key service not being delivered by them despite being in the contract. We cannot ever allow the council to be in a situation where vulnerable residents are left without the support they need

Residents have told us how concerned they are about environmental issues – concerns we share.

Our precious environment will be a focus of our attention, as we do everything we can to protect the green spaces that make our Borough such a lovely place to live in.

We want to significantly extend tree canopy cover and upgrade our open spaces wherever possible by introducing sections of species-rich habitat such as wildflower areas. We will also press developers to meet challenging targets for increasing biodiversity, because maintaining the status quo is not good enough for the UK which is the most biodiversity depleted country in Europe.

While knocking on doors

we have been greeted by many former staunch Conservative supporters who now cannot bear the thought of supporting a party led nationally by Boris Johnson.

They can no longer associate themselves with a party that accepts dishonesty and lack of competence in its highest echelons. They are also bitterly disappointed with the Conservative government’s indifference to the cost-of-living crisis, an indifference brought about by enjoying such personal wealth and privilege that they just cannot comprehend the effect that their political choices and their failures to intervene have on ordinary people.

Every time we do a food shop we see increases in prices. Many people are seeing their food bills rise by more than 20%. And now that other bills are leaping up, too many families are having to make the impossible choice between heating their homes or feeding their families properly.

Increases in pensions are not meeting inflation. For people of working age, this month we see a rise in National Insurance contributions, reducing take home pay for many after the Conservatives promised in the 2019 general election that there would be no such tax rises under a Conservative government.

And in keeping with what nowadays appears to be the Conservatives’ ethos, this tax increase disproportionately hits lower earners.

Huge increases in energy costs have more than doubled spending on gas and electricity for many people, with a hopelessly inadequate government response leading to bills of over £2,000 a year for many households. A loan of £200 is not going to cut the mustard for millions of people, comparing shoddily with the response to the energy crisis of other European countries. In France the rise in energy prices is capped at 4%.

And on top of all that comes the increase in the cost of petrol and diesel, so that to fill up an average car now costs £90, half of this raked in by the Chancellor in fuel duty and taxes. Meanwhile, he hopes we will not notice his sleight of hand whereby his 5p reduction in fuel duty is less than his increased revenue from VAT on fuel.

Add to this the Downing

Street parties which took place when many of us were unable to say a proper goodbye to loved ones who lost their lives during the Covid pandemic. We were assured by Boris Johnson that no parties had happened, and no rules were broken.

Yet, police investigations and their issuing of fixed penalty notices suggest that the Prime Minister was at best economical with the truth. This is now confirmed when the

Prime Minister himself and the Chancellor are to receive fixed penalty notices for attending gatherings/parties in Downing

Street when it was illegal to do so.

Rishi Sunak is now appearing to be less than trustworthy as Chancellor of the Exchequer, given the questions over personal tax affairs and his extended possession of a United States Green Card. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, “A green card holder is a permanent resident,” which seems incompatible with acting as a UK Government Minister.

All of this has eroded trust in the Conservatives and may well be reflected when Wokingham residents cast their votes in this year’s local elections. If you are thinking of abandoning the Conservatives you are not alone, many of your neighbours are considering doing the same.

Residents have a choice in the coming elections, a choice that in most parts of the Borough is realistically between the Conservatives and the Lib

Dems. On May 5, they have the opportunity to elect Liberal Democrat councillors who are open, honest, hardworking, listen to residents and care about the issues that matter to people, as I have laid out. Increasingly on the doorstep, that is an opportunity that residents have told us they will take.