24
LOCAL POLITICS
march 2024
My Wokingham survey to gain insight from residents
M
y Wokingham ran a poll recently to gain an insight into what those who live and work in the borough consider the most important issues. Wokingham, renowned for its affluence and high quality of life, stands as a testament to the charm of a thriving community. However, as with any locale, the town grapples with its unique set of challenges. To gauge the collective concerns of Wokingham Borough residents and workers, we invited local residents to participate. This survey aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the issues that occupy the thoughts of those who call the borough home. Your perspective
matters, and we wanted to hear your voice on matters that directly impact our community’s well-being. The results were presented to local politicians. Below are their thoughts. Residents’ order of importance: l Healthcare services l Crime and safety l Transportation and traffic l Housing, development and planning l Cost of living l Local economy and businesses l Education l Council Tax bills l Environmental and green spaces l Community services l Refuse services l Pollution
Stephen Conway
Wokingham Borough Council leader
M
y Wokingham’s survey provides a useful guide to local opinion on key matters for our residents. I welcome the survey and will be considering the results carefully. It doesn’t surprise me that healthcare services come top of the list; that accords with what we are hearing on the doorstep across the borough. It’s a reflection both of the importance people attach to the NHS and their concern that it is under increasing strain. The borough council has a limited role it can play, though we do lobby for improved healthcare for our residents. Crime and safety are second in the list, which again is no surprise. The council runs its own Anti-Social Behaviour unit, which does good work in responding to a range of activities, but most of the concern is with crime and I suspect reflects a desire for more police presence on the streets and in our communities. The council works with the police in the Community Safety Partnership and puts the case for more community policing at every opportunity. I have raised the same matters with the Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley. Amongst the other top choices, I suspect that transport and traffic refer to a variety of matters - the speed of vehicles, the state of the roads, and congestion. Speeding is a police matter, though the council tries through monitoring and signage to deter drivers from exceeding speed limits, and we raise problems with the police on a regular basis. The state of the roads is a nationwide concern and chronic underfunding by central government has led to a deterioration across the country. Wokingham’s roads are better than those managed by some councils, but it’s an uphill battle with limited resources to keep our roads as good as we want them to be. The extra £418,000 given to us recently by government, though it sounds
impressive, will enable us to resurface less than one per cent of the borough’s highways. Congestion is a problem at various points of the borough. We are trying to tackle it partly through engineering solutions (such as junction improvements and better phasing of traffic lights) but also by offering people more choice on how they travel – by making cycling and walking easier on shorter journeys and subsidizing buses for longer trips. If the number of people using alternatives to the car increases, fewer cars will be competing for road space. The growth in housing in the last 15 years or more (our population has gone up by 15 per cent since 2011) has undoubtedly made congestion worse. We have been lobbying government for a reduction in our housing targets, but unfortunately, the secretary of state is continuing to insist that we provide the number of houses determined by a government algorithm, and he has, at least for the moment, rejected our appeal that our new target takes account of the new housing already delivered through the current local plan. We will continue to put the case for a housing number that reflects true local need, not an arbitrary number produced by a government algorithm.
MyWokingham
www.mywokingham.co.uk
Clive Jones
Wokingham Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate
I
’m grateful to My Wokingham for highlighting these issues that are of interest to people living in Wokingham. I’m not at all surprised to see healthcare at the top of residents’ priorities. As the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Wokingham, I spend a huge amount of time talking to residents across the borough. They have serious concerns that our muchloved NHS is not being funded properly. Many people want to see the promised new Royal Berkshire hospital built sooner rather than later. It’s almost five years since Boris Johnson promised us a new one would be built. What I do hear very regularly is praise for the fantastic job that our healthcare professionals do to look after us. It’s no surprise to see crime and safety at number two. Reductions in police numbers have had a profound effect on the ability to deal with burglary and street crime and it will take years to recover from these cuts. Victims of crime have their lives turned upside down and it’s simply unacceptable that the police lack the resources to investigate properly. Transportation and traffic affect everyone in their day to day lives, however they travel. Our roads have suffered from decades of under-investment and have a massive backlog of resurfacing that just isn’t funded. This is just one example of the impact of ever decreasing funds available to local councils, with Wokingham having lost almost half of its spending power since 2010. The alternatives for local travel, such as buses and safe routes for cycling, were largely ignored until the Lib Dems took over the council in 2022 even though these are the best ways to reduce pressure on the roads. Housing numbers are also often
mentioned to me. Many people now accept that it’s the government-imposed housing targets that results in so many houses being built in Wokingham. We have been working very hard to rebalance these government-imposed targets and we will continue to do so. The cost-of-living crisis is affecting so many residents in different ways. Massive increases in mortgage costs, sometimes adding £500 a month to interest costs, coupled with a doubling of energy bills and food cost for an average family going up a £1,000 a year means that a household with a mortgage is over £7,000 a year worse off than they were two to three years ago. That’s £7000 a year that they can’t spend in our local economy, in local shops and businesses where our friends and neighbours work. Many residents talk to me about Thames Water regularly pumping raw sewage into our rivers. They are disgusted by this and want urgent to be taken to stop this. They are also concerned about the very slow pace of repairing leaking water pipes telling me it’s not acceptable to take 26 years to reduce the leaks by half. Amazingly this is Thames Water’s target.
Steppin' Out Stars dancers off to Blackpool
A
total of 25 dancers from Woodley and Wokingham will perform at The prestigious Blackpool Tower Ballroom next month - the home of Strictly Come Dancing! Steppin' Out Stars of Tomorrow, one of Berkshire's leading theatre schools is thrilled to provide this opportunity. "It is such a fantastic opportunity for the children to dance in such an
iconic venue," said Shelley Otway, CEO and principal of the award-winning theatre school. The students have been rehearsing since January and will open their show the week after Easter. "It will be a wonderful opportunity to bond and create lifelong memories," said Shelley, who is also juggling three shows and her own wedding in May.