Question
There is an ongoing covert campaign by right wing activists and political organisations to delegitimise the call for fairness, equality and justice that resonated in the UK and all over the world at the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Cllr Halsall, do you expect your commitments to equality, given in writing, on behalf of WBC to be honoured or is the Council’s inaction and unwillingness to engage with concerned BME residents, part of your personal de-legitimisation strategy?
Minutes:
Question
There is an ongoing covert campaign by right wing activists and political organisations to delegitimise the call for fairness, equality and justice that resonated in the UK and all over the world at the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Cllr Halsall, do you expect your commitments to equality, given in writing, on behalf of WBC to be honoured or is the Council’s inaction and unwillingness to engage with concerned BME residents, part of your personal de-legitimisation strategy?
Answer
As I have said to you many times, my mandate is as Leader of Wokingham Borough Council. UK and universal issues are for another forum; I neither comment upon them nor do I advocate Wokingham Borough Council aligning itself to them or distancing itself from them.
I am not given to virtue signalling.
My ambition is that all residents of Wokingham Borough feel valued, safe, and secure and that inequality is tackled, discrimination challenged and diversity celebrated. My focus is to create the culture and the practices within the council and borough to not only identify current concerns and remedy them, but also address future concerns as they occur. We have been and will continue to reach out to all in the community. Indeed, I understand that you have had discussions with officers and you and I have met, which I can say, was enjoyable and productive.
As set out in our Community Vision, we are committed to ensuring that Wokingham Borough is a great place to live, learn, work and grow and a great place to do business. We want to enrich the lives of all our residents, in safe and strong communities, and tackle inequality together.
We have various important roles in tackling inequality and will fulfil these as:
· A service provider – by making sure we meet different needs for different people and ensure we treat everyone fairly.
· An employer – by making sure we treat workers and potential workers fairly. Offering a safe and accessible workplace free from discrimination.
· Community Leaders – by working with residents, partners, Councillors and staff to enrich the lives of everyone.
We are currently working to develop an Equality Plan 2021-25. In it we will prioritise listening to, and learning from, our communities and use this information to effectively deliver improved services that work well for everyone. We will actively champion our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and aim to build a diverse and engaged workforce, where everyone is respected.
We are utilising the Local Government Association Equality Framework to continually review and improve our services for people with protected characteristics, as defined by the Equality Act 2010. Protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
We are embedding the four elements of the Local Government Equality Framework (listed below) into our planned work programmes to ensure we can assess and track our achievements; which are categorised as ‘developing’, ‘achieving’ or ‘excellent’.
1. Understanding and Working with your Communities;
2. Leadership and Organisational Commitment;
3. Responsive Services and Customer Care;
4. Diverse and Engaged Workforce.
The framework will also be used to compare our performance with that of our peers to ensure continuous learning and improvement. I hope to bring that to the Executive in March.
Supplementary Question
As a Black, British-born Englishman, to a fellow traveller Italian immigrant, when do you intend to reactivate the BME Forum, which you will be perfectly entitled to attend as a foreigner as well, so that we can hold you to account for what is being done in our name, knowing that the May elections are coming up soon?
Supplementary Answer
We are both British, Keith.