Why attack the budget?

This reader is delighted to see a multi-party coalition come together to deliver a reasonable Borough budget during difficult economic times.

Yet it comes under constant attack from the Conservatives for nonsense (read partisan) reasons. What do I mean?

The most common complaint is about waste moving to fortnightly collection via wheelie bin. Oh, how can we expect the citizens of Wokingham Borough to cope with weekly inconsistency, waste buildup and unwieldy bins? But let’s remember it was the Conservative-led council that introduced Garden Waste collection fortnightly via... you guessed it, wheelie bins. When you get past the manufactured outrage and see that 80% of councils have fortnightly or longer collection, the argument dissipates and the cost/recycling savings make it an easy choice.

Next is the outrage over higher parking prices and new evening/ weekend fees. But it was only a few years ago when the Conservativeled council introduced evening and weekend parking charges - the very thing they now declare unacceptable.

Of course, no one likes to see prices rise, but the Conservatives left a hole and were chipping away at bus services to subsides drivers.

Here in Wokingham, the parking rise is not out of line with increases in most businesses and parking rises in Bracknell, Camberley and Reading.

Having a functioning multi-party Wokingham Borough Council is a wonder of democracy - a model designed to balance competing interests. For too long, we’ve had a one-party government that sold off green space and overdelivered housing while feigning outrage over it. Let’s support the sensible compromises in this budget. And, let’s all turn out to vote in May and give this democratically-elected coalition more time (don’t forget your ID).

Tom Ross, via email