Poor behaviour is not banter

After six years as a councillor, when it comes to poor behaviour by the Conservatives I thought I had seen it all. But their behaviour at last week’s full council meeting beggared belief.

The Conservatives brought a

motion calling for a pedestrian crossing outside Crosfields School in Shinfield. I would like to thank the many parents and children who attended the meeting hoping their safety concerns could be resolved by a vote on this motion – there was no-one in the chamber who was not moved by their stories. However, those parents and children were shamefully misled by the Conservatives.

The location of the many pedestrian crossings that are requested each year is not, and cannot, be decided by a vote of councillors – a fact that the Conservatives know full well. Such requests need to be assessed by experts and prioritised across the whole borough, in a transparent, fair, responsible way.

Instead, the Conservatives chose to give false hope to those parents and children by bringing this motion, which inevitably fell, as a political stunt ahead of the local elections.

The Conservatives have form here. In my ward of Norreys two years ago, the then Conservative leader of the Council used council-headed paper to write to my residents promising a crossing on a busy route near a new development – despite no assessment or officer approval being given. This was weeks before an election in one of their key battleground seats, and once more gave false hope to many residents, in a desperate plea for votes.

To put this in perspective, along with residents I have requested no less than five crossings in my ward, three are on a busy school route.

Should I bring a motion to the next Council meeting and argue that the children in my ward are more important than others, and mine should be at the top of the list? That would be patently absurd.

There has to be a system for evaluation based on evidence which has to be, and be seen to be, transparent and fair, and not open to undue influence from senior politicians, donations or political stunts.

Finally, some of the Conservatives’ behaviour at the end of the meeting was intimidating and sinister, braying for the public gallery about those who had not voted with them: “remember their faces” and “remember their names”.

One Conservative has since clarified that it wasn’t his intention to

be intimidating. But another simply tapped me on the arm and, smiling, dismissed it as “banter”.

We all want to protect the children in our communities, but the Conservatives know that there has to be a decision-making process that is transparent and fair, otherwise residents will lose trust in the Council altogether.

We all want to stand up for our residents, but we have to be honest with them as well. The Conservatives should be ashamed of themselves for misleading Crosfield families, in an attempt to boost their chances in the local elections.

Cllr Rachel Burgess, Labour Borough Councillor for Norreys