Minutes:
Question
I am very pleased to see on the report from the Climate Emergency Task and Finish Group that you see behaviour change science as a golden thread throughout the CEAP and that the Council will be encouraging public transport and active travel wherever possible. This will be vital in tackling the climate emergency.
What steps will you be taking to limit the number and length of journeys which are taken within the Borough?
Answer
Firstly, I have to say that we do not have the power to limit journeys and I would oppose any move to impose journey limits, quotas or restrictions on any resident. Actually, I am also pleased that we do not have the power to limit civil liberties because that sounds more like some form of totalitarian dictatorship rather a democracy, which for the sake of my children I would defend to my last breath. I am surprised that you used the word limit but for the record your Conservative council wants to help people be more sustainable, not force them to be. Unlike the Lib Dems we will not force people out of their cars. What we will do is support residents in reducing their need to travel. We will also support residents reduce their reliance on travelling by private car, by providing viable alternatives to those that want and are able to use them.
Delivering sustainable living through behaviour change is the single most important thing we can do in the fight against climate change. By engaging with experts in behaviour change and incentivising sustainable living we aim to remove the barriers that currently prevent residents from living the desired behaviours in their everyday lives. That means working with schools, via schemes such as Beat the Street, to get kids walking and cycling to school. It means working with businesses to reduce the expectation of their staff to commute into their workplaces. It means using the Planning Strategy to design communities where people of all ages have the opportunity to access a wide range of services without having to drive. We can remove the need for residents to use their cars without having to limit, restrict or quota their use. So, will I vote to limit car use? No. Will I prevent people from visiting relatives, to go to work or to take their kids to school because of an arbitrary quota or limit? No, I will not, and frankly I am disappointed that you would.
Supplementary Question
I am not quite sure how you have interpreted the question in such a way. Certainly, nobody could or would want to, try to force people, or to impose quotas on them. The Borough as a large employer in Wokingham has it in its gift to support in managing the number of unnecessary journeys which its staff need to take on WBC business. What steps is WBC going to take as an employer to explore the possibilities of hybrid working, to allow those staff who can do so to continue to work from home?
Supplementary Answer
Firstly, the reason why I have interpreted your question the way that I have is that in your question you say what steps will you be taking to limit the number and length of journeys which are taken within the Borough. You have used the word limit and so I have interpreted it as you want to limit the journeys that people are taking.
In terms of the Council as an employer, we already have a hybrid working policy. We had it before Covid, we maintained it during Covid, and we are looking to maintain it post Covid. Actually, as a result of work that has been done on hybrid working by the Council, we have reduced our carbon footprint of vehicles coming in and out of the Council by over 65%. That has been maintained during Covid and since, which is absolutely fantastic. The Shute End offices are not full of officers, again you will have seen that yourself when you come in, you will have seen that for Council meetings, and you could see it tonight if you had been here. We have to lead by example. We have a duty as an employer, but also as a community leader to lead by example. We cannot go to businesses and ask them to reduce the number of days that they are expecting their staff to go into offices, if we are not offering the same ourselves to our staff, which is what we are doing already.
John Halsall, Leader of the Council:
If I could just be helpful. We have a huge piece of work going on at the moment which is called ‘The Workplace Reimagined’, which is looking to what we should be like in terms of a Council in the future, and it is a long-range piece of work, which will come to the Executive in the course of time when we know what it looks like.