To receive any statements by the Leader of the Council, Executive Members, and Deputy Executive Members.
In accordance with Procedure Rule 4.2.23 the total time allocated to this item shall not exceed 20 minutes, and no Member shall speak for more than 5 minutes
Minutes:
Clive Jones – Leader of the Council and Business and Economic Development
I and my colleagues were absolutely delighted to take over responsibility for running the administration of the Borough Council at the Annual Council on 19th May. We have formed the Wokingham Borough Partnership with Labour and Independent colleagues. We are working together in a spirit of cooperation that, I have to say, is working very well at the moment.
We have been happy to share the Chairs of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees with other parties, something never done before on this Council, though done at a lot of other councils. I am pleased that Independent Councillor Jim Frewin is the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee. We suggested Conservative Councillor Alison Swaddle as the Chair of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee but the Leader of the Opposition turned this down. She also turned down having a Conservative Vice-Chair of the Management Committee. A contrast to this has been the willingness of the Borough’s three Conservative MPs who have actively engaged with us to present plans to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to try to get housing numbers down in Wokingham. We also had a commitment from Michael Gove, the Secretary of State, to meet with us. This, of course, was before he was sacked by Boris Johnson. We hope that Michael Gove’s successor, Greg Clark, will come to Wokingham – we have asked him to visit us.
The MPs have met with us in person and both Theresa May and James Sunderland have agreed to work together to lobby the Government in order to get some clarity around the Government’s proposals for reforming Adult Social Care. At the moment, the proposals will create serious financial instability in many Councils across the south of England. There needs to be some clarity about how the massive increase in costs for Adult Social Care will be funded. It cannot be left to local councils to fund the reforms.
Currently, there is Government funding for free school meals during school holidays for children who would normally receive them during term time. There is no guarantee that this funding will be extended after this year’s summer holidays. We are all aware that there is a serious cost of living crisis which is hitting us all. The administration and our colleagues are committed to helping the most vulnerable in our community, wherever we can. I can confirm that the Council will support free school meals during the school holidays from the end of the summer holiday through to May 2023. This confirmation will be a great support and comfort for the families receiving free school meals. This support will help them to budget and prioritise their spending at a time when they are being hit from all directions – increases in fuel costs up to £2 per litre; massive increases in in gas and electricity prices; increases in National Insurance; huge increases in food prices. Generally, everything is going up in shops with inflation at 10%, much of this caused by devaluation of the £ by 20% since Brexit. Hopefully, there will be further Government support for free school meals during school holidays but if there isn’t, we will do what we can to help. This confirmation will help many of the 2,000 families in the Borough who rely on free school meals.
Paul Fishwick – Executive Members for Active Travel, Highways and Transport
I wish to highlight that, at an Executive Member Decision held on 13 July, I approved with Councillor Imogen-Shepherd- Dubey, a decision to modify the contract terms to allow the 128 and 129 bus service, serving Winnersh, Hurst, Twyford, Sonning and Woodley to Wokingham and Reading, plus other services affecting Wokingham town, to continue to operate. This will allow the Council time to go out to tender. However, the funding for these services was not budgeted for by the previous administration and £82,440 of S106 funding will be required to fund these services to 31 March 2023.
I have also written to the Local Policing Commander (on 24 June) in relation to the lack of mobile speed enforcement across the Borough, which hasn’t taken place for over three years. Our experience over the past three years has been that Thames Valley Police are reluctant to prioritise speed limit enforcement activity through anything other than Community Speedwatch. Whilst we and many of our communities are supportive of this scheme, we do feel that it is important that the efforts of residents are backed up by a reasonable level of police enforcement activity.
Rachel Bishop-Firth – Executive Member for Equalities, Inclusion and Fighting Poverty
I am delighted that Clive Jones was able to confirm support for those families most affected by the cost of living crisis. We hope that by committing to support those who rely on benefits-related free school meals during the school holidays we will take a weight off the minds of the Wokingham parents who are facing the biggest challenges from the current cost of living crisis.
Distribution of the Household Support Fund is well under way in support of our voluntary sector partners. Over 1,000 households have applied so far and this means that we have reached about 80% of the free school meals pupils already. A high number of those contacting our partners have taken advantage of offers of additional support. So, for example, 76% of those approaching First Days have asked for further support.
We are aware that some of those using vouchers to access cash have had problems. This is because several, mainly smaller, providers with Paypoint terminals, do not have enough cash on site to make payments. The Council and our Hardship Alliance partners are working proactively to find solutions. This includes contacting people who have requested cash vouchers to see if they would like to switch to food vouchers instead and signposting residents towards pay points that can support the amount of cash needed. We want to assure residents that we are doing everything we can to get this much needed support to them. We are now encouraging more people to come forward for support if they need it. We appreciate the support of Members in the Chamber tonight in getting the message out to residents in your wards, particularly pensioners and those families that are just about managing. I will share the leaflet in order to support that.
We would like to thank the officers for arranging the fantastic welcome event for new arrivals in the Borough last Saturday, which the Mayor referred to earlier and the voluntary/community sector organisations which came along to support it.
Finally, the Residents Equality Forum is working hard to ensure that voices from all parts of our community are heard as we become a more inclusive Borough.