Call for council to be bolder in support of Cali businesses

“THE COUNCIL should be bolder in its financial assistance to businesses at California Crossroads.”

That’s the view of Will Brown, who presented a petition to the council, presented at its meeting on Thursday, March 21.

“When I decided to start this petition regarding California crossroads in late February, the number that I was given for given was the businesses that reported that reported that their trade was down by 40%. This at the time felt so severe that I worried that people would query its veracity,” he said.

“Since then, businesses at the crossroads have come forward with significantly higher numbers.”

He reminded the chamber the end date was six months away, and some businesses might not survive, and residents would have to travel further afield to access services.

“I can guarantee you they won’t be walking or cycling to Wokingham, Arborfield or Crowthorne, they will be driving,” he said.

“We will have a wonderful state-of-the-art crossroads, but no one will have any reason to go there unless they fancy viewing boarded up shops.”

More than 600 people had signed the petition, which will now be considered by council officers.

Later in the meeting, Cllr David Cornish, the executive member for business, said it was regrettable that more consideration towards the businesses wasn’t made when the project was planned in 2018.

“There are lessons to be learned about how such projects are managed in the future,” he continued.

“We know this is a difficult time for all businesses in the area and council officers are doing everything possible to help them with the temporary disruption, with project managers meeting them daily.”

He added: “Quite understandably, the request we try and do more, if local government was funded better, it might be possible to consider financial support for these businesses. It isn’t, so we can’t, and we never have in the past.

“Wokingham town centre businesses were not compensated during disruption caused by Market Place works in 2017 and 2018.”

He said the council’s officers would examine every possible avenue to try and find ways of offering the businesses more support.

“We hope all councillors will do everything possible to resist the temptation to feed negativity by highlighting challenges. Support the local businesses by painting a positive picture about the future.”

He also confirmed that no council money was being used to fund the project. Instead it came from the S106 fund, paid for by developers who have been building housing in the borough.