Adequate funding for councils

Thank you for your excellent article in your newspaper informing your readers about the disappointing grant settlement for 2024/5 from the government the 3% increase when most other councils have been granted 6.5% means Wokingham borough residents will be hit with a high council tax increase just when they are struggling with the cost of living crisis.

It’s very bad news when many residents will be struggling with mortgage payments with fixed-rate mortgages having to be renegotiated with high interest rates and people having to pay high levels utility bills.

This will do nothing to help with the increased demand for adult and children social care in the borough but the Conservatives just don’t care (the demand has increased to

£24 million).

Since 2010 they have just cut funding to public services and now they are all broken.

Making it harder for relatives to get help for their elderly loved ones and parents to get help for autistic children at schools, examples of the result of Conservative Party cuts in funding.

When the Conservatives come knocking on your door asking for your support ask them why they have not helped keep council tax increases down by helping the council with adequate funding at a time when families are being hit in their family budgets.

The conclusion I come to is they don’t care.

Get councils to pay out even when many are going bankrupt and force them to make cuts in services.

We can do better than this for our residents in Wokingham borough.

Cllr Greg Bello, Labour Councillor, Loddon Ward, Woodley Town Council