Minutes:
Clive Jones, Leader of the Council:
Thank you once again Madam Mayoy, can I once again congratulate you most sincerely on your appointment as Mayor. Can I also congratulate Beth Rowland on her appointment as your Deputy. I hope that you really enjoy your terms of office.
I would like to begin by thanking John Halsall, the outgoing Leader of the Council, and his Executive colleagues for all of their work over the last three years. I am particularly grateful for John’s willingness to bring other political groups into discussions on the Council’s response to Covid, and to John Kaiser for agreeing to the request to share his budget thinking with the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. I congratulate Pauline Jorgensen on becoming Leader of the Conservative Group, and I hope that we will be able to work together in the spirit of cooperation.
I would like to thank all of my colleagues including the members of the Wokingham Borough Partnership for giving me the honour of being the Leader of Wokingham Borough Council. They have placed enormous trust in me, and I will do my very best to serve all of the residents of the Borough in a professional, effective and efficient manner. There will be a willingness from myself and my colleagues to consult with others and to call on the skills and experience of Councillors of all parties to help us tackle the considerable challenges that the Borough faces. Now more than ever is the time for grown up politics, which puts the interests of residents and businesses above party political point scoring. The challenges that the Borough faces are great; the cost of living crisis is hitting individuals, families and businesses here in Wokingham. The Government has imposed an unsustainable new housing allocation on the Borough, which greatly exceeds local need.
A climate emergency requires urgent action, not just to protect us here and now, but for the security of our children and our children’s children. Meanwhile Ministers are putting the Council’s finances under intense pressure with an enormous bill looming for their Social Care Reforms, and new rules that require us to put aside more money to cover the financing of investments, assets and capital loans. The cost of living crisis is hitting many families here in Wokingham, but we can, and we must help to address its local consequences, including acute hardship for a growing number of residents and rising costs on businesses and the Council. We will be placing an emphasis on anti-poverty measures and working closely with local businesses to see what the Council can do to help them. I will take the Business, portfolio, and we have created a new position on the Executive. I am delighted that Rachel Bishop-Firth will be the Executive Member for Equalities, Inclusion and Fighting Poverty.
People need affordable and decent homes to live in. We must aim to improve on the Council’s record of building social housing. Stephen Conway, as well as being the Deputy Leader of the Council, will also be responsible for Housing. Although there is a widespread recognition that some new housing is required, especially affordable housing for younger people in our community, and for those of all ages that are priced out of the market. There is a tremendous hostility as we saw in the recent local elections, to the Government’s imposition on the housing market that greatly exceeds local need. The Liberal Democrats have petitioned the Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Levelling Up and asked for a reduction to the excessively high housing allocation imposed on us by the Government. The Council had previously tried to get the number reduced, and our Executive Member for Planning and the Local Plan, Lindsay Ferris, will continue to argue our case for a reduction. If the Government accepts our housing allocation should be reduced, we can reassess the less sustainable sites in the draft Local Plan, but whatever this Conservative Government eventually decides we do need to address the problem of flood risk. It cannot be right to argue that the development of land will increase the risk of flooding, and let me take this opportunity to say to developers that this Administration is determined to oppose housing development in the Green Belt.
We must do more to make a contribution to tackling the climate emergency. We are very conscious that some measures that the Council have already looked at, have the potential to be very costly. We want to be certain that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely. We want to ensure that climate emergency projects are based on a full business case, including a carbon saving assessment, and will have undergone rigorous scrutiny. I am personally delighted that Sarah Kerr will be Executive Member for Climate Emergency and Resident Services. There is no better person on this Council than you to be taking on that role.
Our Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Leisure, will be Ian Shenton. He will continue to promote our idea of a Covid memorial wood, to help meet the Council’s tree planting ambitions, and to commemorate those in the Borough who have lost their lives in the pandemic.
We will use all the opportunities available to us to secure external funding for public transport and active travel initiatives, led by our new Executive Member for Active Travel, Highways and Transport, Paul Fishwick. Please note the emphasis on Active Travel.
There have been much needed changes and improvements in our Children’s Services department in recent years. Only a few years ago they were in danger of being put into special measures. We have a very experienced Executive Member for Children’s Services in Prue Bray. She will be working to continue this improvement and one of her priorities will be children’s mental health.
As I said earlier, recent Government announcements on changes to the way the public pay for adult social care will mean significant changes for the Borough in the next few years. I am very pleased to have another very experienced Councillor, David Hare, to be taking on this role. He will be our Executive Member for Wellbeing and Adult Services, taking on this massive challenge.
The major financial challenges faced by the Council necessarily mean that we will need to work hard to ensure that the Council is on a firm financial footing. There are many things which are low cost but high impact that we would like to pursue. How many will be feasible will depend on the financial legacy left to us by the previous administration. Imogen Shepherd-DuBey will be our Executive Member for Finance, prioritising prudence, and stability. Madam Mayor, our new Lib Dem administration will seek to make the Council more open and more inclusive, as well as being financially sound. We have a vision of a caring, listening, responsive, Council, and we will happily work in partnership alongside anyone who shares that vision. Above all we will never forget that we are here to serve the people of this Borough. They have put faith in us. We are determined to show that we are worthy of that trust.
Pauline Jorgensen, Leader of the Conservative Group:
Before I start my speech, I would like to thank a number of people. Thanks to Keith and Abdul for their services as Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the last year. You have been a real credit to the Borough. I would also like to thank John Halsall for his three years as Leader of the Council, guiding us through the pandemic and the difficult economic aftermath, and for putting in such a huge amount of hours of service to the Wokingham Borough residents. Also, to John Kaiser for keeping a firm grip on the finances. I would like to thank all of the Officers who have worked with my Conservative colleagues over the years to make this one of the best places to live, work and raise a family.
Congratulations to Clive on his election as Leader. I will admit that it is interesting that his coalition has scooped up the votes of the other parties without offering them any seats on the Executive. In the interests of transparency maybe the coalition members will tell us what they have been offered to join a coalition. Residents that put their cross next to Labour candidates in the election may also be taken aback that those same councillors have now decided to dissolve their parties and to join the Lib Dems. A pity that was not mentioned when they were out asking people to vote. We intend to approach Opposition differently from how the Liberal Democrats did when we were in office. Given that the voters have ensured that no party was elected with a majority on the Council, we fully support the need to work together to tackle the challenges ahead. Where we believe that the Lib Dem Group are doing things that are of benefit to Borough residents then we will support them. We will also hold them to account when they fail. I hope that the coalition will look for new ways to introduce more challenge to the Council meetings, maybe dedicated questions to the Council Leader from the Opposition Leader, like PMQ. We will provide challenge where it is needed, but will support where we share objectives. In the past we have worked together to press for pilot programmes on housing, the Local Plan needs to be addressed with urgency. Failing to get one means that we would be at the mercy of developers. Various Lib/Lab coalition Councillors promised on their Election literature that they would protect their areas from development. As we all know the best protection is the development of a Local Plan. We look forward to conversations about how to progress the Plan and we would be willing to help the Liberal coalition continue the successful conversations that we have been having with Government, to reduce the housing numbers.
The message from residents is clear, we must put aside our differences and move to work for the benefit of the Borough. The Lib Dem/Labour coalition has inherited an enviable legacy of 20 years of Conservative rule. Wokingham Borough is one of the best places in the UK and is one of the heathiest places to live. Sound financial management means that we have been able to maintain and increase services, put investment into new services in the Borough and develop an income stream that is funding better outcomes for residents.
The coalition will benefit from new schools and sixth forms that we have secured, new leisure centres we are building and have built, and those new social homes that we have delivered, along with £57million we have set aside for building and modernising affordable social housing. We have delivered new greenways and cycleways, doubled the spending on road maintenance, and are in the middle of a programme to reduce congestion, something which I remember the Lib Dems opposed. We also provided unprecedented support for families and businesses during the pandemic and its aftermath, including millions of pounds in grants. The Administration must continue our policy of backing people during these difficult times.
I hope that the coalition will continue to build on the legacy and priorities that we have put in place, and that when the going gets tough, as it inevitability will for any new Administration, I hope they won’t fall back on the normal position of trying to blame the excellent situation that they have inherited. The exercise of power carries obligation to take responsibility.
Finally, I want to thank my Conservative colleagues for electing me as their new Leader. I have a fantastic team around me, and I am looking forward to working with them over the coming year. We will provide scrutiny and we will provide challenge to the coalition, and we will make the case to residents of this great Borough on why they should return a Conservative administration at the next election.
Finally, I would like to point out that along with the normal Executive Members or Shadow Executive Members that we would have, we have introduced a new post, which is being held by Laura Blumenthal, which will cover levelling up, equality and social housing.