The Leader of Council will notify Council of any changes to the Executive and their respective portfolios, Deputy Executive Members and, if applicable, the terms of delegation to them and Officers.
The Leader of Council/Executive Members will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes in total.
The Leader of the Opposition will be allowed to speak for up to 5 minutes.
Minutes:
Statement from John Halsall, Leader of the Council
Mr Mayor, It is great to be back here, though current circumstances are a little strange.
Please accept my apologies that it is only for a few.
The elections earlier this month saw the sad departure of several colleagues – some by design, and some as a result of our sometimes-brutal system of democracy. My sympathies and thanks go out to my former Executive colleague UllaKarin, and the former Labour Leader Andy. While losing can be a tough business, I believe that both will bounce back – indeed, we have already seen that we just cannot keep Andy away!
Thank you, Charlotte, Diane, Ken, Oliver, Emma, Ian, Richard and Malcolm, particularly Malcolm, for your many years of dedicated service.
I warmly welcome the new Members of the Council, Sam, Anne, Phil, Rebecca and Jackie on the Conservative side, and to Morag, Ian, and Pete of the opposition. It is a pleasure to see Norman and Shahid return.
The local elections were a demonstration of our residents’ faith in this Conservative administration. Delivered in the past! Solid in the pandemic! Great plan for the future! Stability! Experience! Professionalism!
Our majority has stayed the same, despite the Opposition’s confident predictions of No Overall Control.
I imagine the flawed but persistent public criticism of our finances was to ensure that on gaining control the opposition could disingenuously claim that magically the finances had instantaneously been fixed. Good plan. Let me assure you, there is nothing to fix! Our finances are strong, transparent and in rude health.
We won a larger share of the vote than any other party and our vote share went up!
This is not, for a moment, grounds for complacency. Our position here as Community leaders is a gift from residents. It is given on the understanding that we deliver for them. Whilst I am Leader of this Council, the Executive will strive every day to make this Borough the greatest, safest and happiest place to live, work and bring up a family.
I am delighted to see that we are now not only the healthiest local authority but also the most prosperous, having for a long time been one of the most desirable places to live. This is despite being the lowest funded. A huge testament to this administration.
This is a wonderful Borough, and we have a great future. We are fortunate to have some of the finest officers and directors led by my energetic, highly professional and innovative chief executive.
We have a huge, ambitious and detailed programme to deliver for our residents.
To paraphrase I will not make age an issue. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponents’ youth and inexperience.
Many of the Executive team will continue:
· John – my very valued Deputy - Finance and Housing.
· Pauline - Highways and Transport.
· Wayne - Planning and Enforcement.
· Stuart - Business and Economic Development.
· Parry - Environment and Leisure.
· Charles - Health, Wellbeing and Adult Services.
· Gregor - Resident Services, Communications and Emissions.
Graham Howe will step up from his deputy role to become Executive Member for Children’s Services.
Finally, in the new portfolio for Neighbourhoods and Communities, I have asked Bill to step onto the Executive.
For the Deputy Executive Members:
Laura - Equalities, Poverty, the Arts and Climate Change.
Shahid - Insight and Change.
Michael - Environment and Communities.
Phil - Health, Wellbeing and Adult Services.
Our priority is economic and social recovery for our Borough. Earlier this year, the Executive approved the creation of the Employment Support Hub to help people get back into work. As with Shinfield Studios, we will work with our partners to attract new job opportunities to the Borough and are confident in our ability to do so.
A key part is the delivery of infrastructure and capital investment needed by our towns and villages.
A new draft of the Local Plan will be brought forward, whilst continuing to bring housing targets down to a level that is reasonable for our Borough. We were successful in convincing the Government to scrap the proposed substantial increase in our housing numbers, and we will go on making our case to get those figures down further. Rather than just complaining about it or digging our heels in, refusing to budge, we went to the Government with strong, constructive arguments that their plans did not work. They listened. Reasonable negotiation, delivering in the residents’ interest – what any good Conservative Council should do, avoiding the pitfalls experienced by Lib Dem South Oxon.
Too many young people simply cannot afford to buy here. We cannot discard their ambitions, driving out the bright and the talented because housing is out of their reach. We will get the right housing in the right places, which means addressing the urgent need for more affordable and social housing in the Borough.
We will be building on our first steps in doing our part to tackle climate change and make our environment more friendly. We will begin the work of building solar farms in the Borough, moving towards our target of making 70% of the Borough’s waste recyclable, and planting 300,000 trees.
Securing the best education for our younger generation is vital to ensuring that those from less affluent homes are not left behind as we emerge from the pandemic. We will continue to provide the best opportunities for children and young people, opening a new special educational needs school in Winnersh, and start laying the groundwork for new primary schools in Matthews Green and Arborfield.
We led the way in embracing the voluntary and health sectors over the last two years. We now wish to do the same with industry, towns and parishes and the police. We want to make sure that we continue to live in a great, safe and happy Borough. Over the course of the next year, we will withdraw from the Public Protection Partnership, bringing these services back under our control and ensuring that they work in the best interests of our residents. We will be taking action to tackle fly tipping, noise, bonfires and other environmental issues which affect the quality of life for our residents.
Anti-social behaviour, low level crime and Domestic Violence are a concern across the Borough. We will work with Matthew Barber, our excellent and experienced new Police and Crime Commissioner, on creating a co-ordinated plan for how we can clamp down on these issues – whilst looking to what more we can do to help families going through difficulties and provide activities for younger people.
We now have high standard social homes, very little homelessness and practically no rough sleepers.
Being the authority with the lowest level of deprivation, we plan to use the metrics that we must identify families and individuals who need help. Hopefully, we will be able to change lives to become independent and self-sufficient. We must have coherent programmes for poverty and equality which make us an exemplar of best practice.
This year will see the rolling out of our Congestion and Intelligent traffic Schemes coupled with a very high level of road maintenance, which should keep the Borough moving whilst minimising environmental considerations.
We will make steps in our journey of giving staff a clear sense of direction and career progression, making the council a place where they are proud to work.
This is just the start of what is to come. There is much work to be done, but I know that my team and I have the energy and resolve to do it.
To quote either Seneca or Cicero, I don't know which, who said “if it was not for the elders correcting the mistakes of the young, there would be no state”.
For more than a year, our lives have been very different. The pandemic has dramatically altered our world and shattered so many people’s way of life.
We are now starting to see the end. Our government’s courageous and ambitious vaccination programme has prevented the deaths of thousands and offers the hope to a return to normality. We must accept that there is much work to be done to help those who have suffered get back onto their feet. We will reach out to those who are struggling.
As a community, we will ingrain the spirit which saw us helping one another – delivering food parcels, volunteering with charities, checking up on an isolating neighbour.
Despite everything that we have been through, I believe that we have an exciting future to look ahead to. This is only the beginning.
But lastly please join me again in a moment’s silence for those who have died during this dreadful pandemic in Wokingham, the UK, and around the world, and those who have suffered not just the effect of the virus, but the problems which have accompanied it.
Statement from Lindsay Ferris, Leader of the Opposition
The last year has been the most difficult that many of us will have encountered in our lives. I would not only like to remember our fellow citizens who have, sadly, lost their lives to Covid-19, but to those who have been impacted, and remain so, by the pandemic.
In addition, many local people have had delayed or cancelled hospital appointments and have, tragically, passed away or are still struggling with illness. They are the unseen casualties of this pandemic, whether in Adult Social Care or helping to get much-needed food and medicine to our older people.
Many local businesses have received much needed help through grants received from the Government and those staffing the finance and other departments should also be thanked for their help. Hopefully, we are nearing the end of this pandemic, but we still have to be cautious, despite so many having had their vaccines. It is only now that we can start to look to the future and what we can expect from this Council.
We on the Lib Dem side believe that there is much to do. One area we would like to address is the culture which, unfortunately, exists within a number of areas within this Council. There are still, disappointingly, areas where the view is taken that they, the Council, can do no wrong. How some of our residents have been treated leaves me speechless. Throughout this year we will be pressing to change this viewpoint.
Finally, as the Leader of the only Group on the Council to have increased its representation, I would like to thank our three new Councillors. Fortunately, one, Morag Malvern, is with us in the Council Chamber, whilst Ian Shenton and Peter Dennis are on the Teams connection. I am confident that they will each make a valuable contribution to the work of the Council in the years to come.