Agenda item

To receive a statement from the Leader of Council

The Leader of Council made the following statement:

It is seventy years this month that King George passed away, leaving the throne to the Queen and I am sure that you will join me in thanking her for her service and to share her hope that the jubilee will provide an opportunity for people to come together after the difficulties of recent years. In recognition of the Jubilee, we will be providing free residential street closures.

It is now almost two years since Covid entered the Borough for the first time. The first case was on February 29^th, 2020. 351 deaths have been recorded. I would just like a moment’s silence to commemorate all those who have tragically died and those whose lives have been impaired in the Borough and elsewhere. All our thoughts are with them.

In the last month we have seen cases of the new Omicron variant in Wokingham reach new heights but also begin to decline. The current rate of new Covid cases is 917 per 100,000.  The current rate reflects the week 2-9 February although we must be cautious to remember that these case numbers are reliant on the testing behaviour underlying them. The majority of cases remain within our school age population and their parents. 

The past month has seen a shift in tone from central Government, looking to a future where we learn to live with Covid as an endemic disease.  The detail around what this future endemic response will be released on Monday and our Officers will continue to work to communicate any new guidance and information to our residents, through the Community Champion newsletter, via our website and other channels, and also support our partners and providers working with care settings and educational settings as they navigate the transition into an endemic landscape.  As we await to hear the detail from central Government we must note that the guidance has not yet changed, we have therefore to encourage people to continue to test when they have Covid symptoms and isolate where appropriate.

A cornerstone of the endemic response to Covid is to encourage as many residents as possible to get vaccinated, be it their 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd booster vaccine.  I am delighted to announce that from Friday 18^th February we will have a local vaccine provision in Wokingham Central Library open weekly on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with opening hours to suit our busy residents.  All residents who are eligible, including importantly 12-15 year olds, pregnant ladies and those not registered with a GP, can walk up to the library and receive their vaccine at a time convenient to them.  I urge you to encourage everybody to use this vaccination centre.

As we try to understand and implement policy around what life with endemic Covid looks like it is important to remember that different people in our communities have had very different lived experiences over the past two years and therefore will be entering this period of transition with different perspectives.  We need to continue to work together, to be patient and understanding within our communities, so that we can move forward and begin to recover from the pandemic all together.

I want to make it clear again that all this administration, my party and I are completely opposed to the loss of every blade of grass, tree, shrub, field or greenspace in the Borough. Once it’s gone it’s gone forever. The verdict of the Borough’s “enough is enough” consultation was also clear that the residents of the Borough agree with our stance.

Pinewood has never been a site allocated for housing. It is a site for numerous valuable clubs and organisations. I have made it very clear that this is the case on numerous occasions. Some seem to ignore what the Council says and plough on with a narrative that it is not the case. Wokingham Without Parish Council has a long lease on the site at a peppercorn from the Borough. It is included in the local plan to permit their development to improve their facilities should they wish it and included in our recently published Leisure Strategy.

We must obey Government mandates, which require us to make provision for a Government determined number of houses.

We have the option to do nothing, which would mean that we have no plan and therefore no defence against speculative development. There is not a square inch of the Borough which has not been optioned by a developer who would seek to exercise that option by claiming we have no plan or five-year land supply. The developer would be successful. I have no doubt that we would be faced with housing numbers several times those currently mandated. This is the option that the Lib Dem South Oxfordshire District Council took with the result I understand of many more houses and the original plan reimposed.

I have worked hard and successfully to ensure that our housing numbers were reduced from 1,635 to the current 789 and campaigned again successfully to oppose the planned changes to national planning policies. I will continue to press Government to make more changes and encourage our MPs, who are all critical of the housing numbers and planning policies to join me in so doing. I have been successful in the past and hope to be so in the future.

I am conscious that this is the start of a very long evening for most for which the main topic of discussion is the Medium Term Financial Plan and associated strategies and policies.

However, it would be wrong to embark on these topics without acknowledging the success of the Borough’s economic regeneration, whether it be Wokingham Town Centre, the tech industry, the University or Shinfield studios. We can thank twenty years of solid stable administration, which has created and welcomed these opportunities.

This did not happen by accident but by the achievement of Officers and members throughout the twenty years of this administration. We have demonstrable resilience and financial probity.

We are continuously researching new opportunities as we are repositioning our approach to inward investment and business. We are very enthusiastic to support proposals for the Royal Berks to relocate some or all its services to the Borough, which would not only create economic opportunity but also be integral to our health and wellbeing strategies for all our residents.

As we view the changing landscape and adapt to it, one of the early and visible casualties is the bus network. It appears that passengers are not returning in sufficient quantities to make the current network viable. To support it we are having to increase the subsidy but can only do this in the medium term in its current form if passenger traffic does not return.

I am recommending this budget to the Council. A budget that contains substantial investment in vital services for the community and contains no cuts. It is safe and prudent and will ensure we continue to deliver the high quality services that the residents have come to expect and rely on.