Pauline Jorgensen Interview

Having been a councillor in Wokingham for 24 years, the now Conservative leader Cllr Pauline Jorgensen has a wealth of experience across a broad spectrum of roles.

And she said the latest local election results was, she thought, ‘very encouraging’. She said: “We were quite close with a couple of seats, and it could have gone either way. We made very positive progress on Earley Town Council which I find encouraging.

“It was certainly better than the national picture and better than what has been happening in Bracknell, Windsor & Maidenhead and West Berkshire.”

Since she took on the role as leader last year, Cllr Jorgensen said certain things have been very frustrating. “There are some things that all the parties agree on but the other parties try to make out that we are not co-operating and that is absolutely not true. It is disingenuous to complain about non-cooperation as we want to work for the benefit of everyone.”

Having lived in Earley since 1984 after moving from Scotland for work, Cllr Jorgensen can regularly be seen on her electric bike which she believes is a fantastic way of getting around the borough, beating the traffic and reducing emissions.

She worked at Heathrow in IT development for 39 years, having originally taken the post for just six months. But she says while her role as Conservative leader takes up most of her time, many residents believe she has a whole office running things behind the scenes which is certainly not true.

She is very active on social media. “I think it is one of the best ways to communicate with people. I get tagged by a lot of people from all over the borough but then it’s a problem trying to cope with the range of issues. I can never remember if they came to me via social media, email, phone call or text. But it is important to be accessible because that’s what we are elected for. People are often surprised to receive a reply from me on a Sunday evening.”

There are lots of issues on people’s minds at the moment with fortnightly rubbish collections high on the agenda.

“People have a right not to be happy about it. I am pretty confident the council is not going to make the savings it is predicting. We fear that this move to a less frequent service is going to cost the council significantly more to begin with than the current weekly waste collection and may also lead to an increase in fly tipping. Wheelie bins are a problem because a lot of the time people don’t have anywhere to put them so they will be left out on the street.

“There is mis-information about the

And she added that the council is playing ‘catch up’ with potholes in the borough and road repairs. “Lots of roads are going to wear out. They need to be fixed properly but they don’t even seem to be spending the money that is there, let alone increasing the budget to account for inflation.”

Members of the public are complaining about the grass verges and their lack of maintenance. But Cllr Jorgensen is all for ‘No Mow May’. “It is absolutely the right thing to do. It encourages diversity in wildlife and the banks of wildflowers by the side of the road are beautiful. But we have got to be sensible. If they are in the way of sight-lines then they must be maintained.”

House building is another issue in the borough, but it is one where the different factions have worked together in a multi-party campaign to help resolve –though Cllr Jorgensen says this united front is not as common as it should be.

“The targets were too high to be sustainable and we have worked hard to get them down. It doesn’t matter how many houses are built; people will always move here because of the work. It would be much better to spread the employment and wealth across the whole country because everyone can’t live in the South-East because it would just become undesirable. It just doesn’t make sense to continue this policy.” And while she agreed that the trend of developing brownfield sites in London and converting unused offices to residential use was a good idea, she added that they need to be of good enough quality for homes and in the right place.

Cllr Jorgensen also praised the town centre redevelopment of which she is proud that the Conservatives had an instrumental role in but said the forthcoming rise in parking changes would be counterproductive. “It really isn’t justified and is simply a false economy. You have to be really careful how often you dip your hands into peoples’ pockets.”

At the Borough Council she has been Vice Chairman of Audit, Conservative Group chairman, Executive Member for Residents Services and a member of the Personnel Board, Executive Member for Housing, and Director of Wokingham Holdings Ltd and Executive Member for Highways and Transport. She has also been Mayor of Earley Town Council and has not ruled out standing for Parliament for a second time.

“I have been in politics since I was 25. It is great meeting lots of interesting people and you do learn a lot. You really never know what will cross your path from day to day.”