By Cllr Andy Croy
I have a long memory.
Fourteen years ago, John Redwood gloated that Labour was only contesting six of the 12 council seats up for election that year in the Wokingham constituency part of Wokingham Borough.
I have just come from the Wokingham Borough Council offices after submitting the final paperwork for the 54 Labour candidates for the 54 seats up for election in Wokingham Borough this year.
So much else has changed since 2010. The Borough is at least 15% bigger in terms of population.
The old ward boundaries, with its mish-mash of one, two and three councillor wards and elector numbers ranging from 2,500 to 9,500 is to be replaced by more equitable three councillor wards for the whole Borough. Consequently, this year’s elections will see all 54 council seats up for election, rather than the normal one-third.
The Borough then laid claim to four Members of Parliament. At the next General Election we will have two, one for Wokingham constituency and one for Earley and Woodley constituency.
While Earley and Woodley constituency is a new construct (which also includes Shinfield and parts of south Reading), Wokingham constituency is also a new constituency. The new Wokingham may have the same name as the old Wokingham but only about half the residents of the new Wokingham were living in the old Wokingham.
Half the residents of the new Wokingham have come from the old versions of Bracknell and Maidenhead constituencies.
This makes the proliferation of the LibDem bar charts based on “Wokingham 2019” worse than worthless. That constituency is electorally extinct. It is an ex-constituency. It is dead. It lives on only in the minds of LibDem bar chart designers.
The map of local wards shows even more change, with only Winnersh, Emmbrook, Evendons and Wokingham Without showing little or no change.
My own ward of Bulmershe and Whitegates is being dismembered with my residents now finding themselves in four new wards – Maiden Erlegh & Whitegates, Bulmershe & Coronation, Loddon (same name as the old Loddon ward but with rejigged boundaries), and South Lake (same name but a bigger ward now).
The other two Earley wards, see some shuffling about to compensate for the inclusion of Whitegates in the ‘family’ of purely Earley wards.
In Shinfield, Labour’s Andrew Gray sees his recently won ward of Shinfield North ward merged with just under half of the old Shinfield South ward to make a new ward, pleasingly, called Shinfield.
In the Wokingham town area, the main change is the loss of a chunk of Norreys ward into Wescott ward and a minor adjustment the other way. Norreys goes from the second biggest ward to one of the smallest.
In the south, Finchampstead will become a single ward and will lose the new developments based on the old Arborfield garrison site. This area will become part of the new Barkham & Arborfield ward, which will also include a stray part of the old Swallowfield ward. The rest of Swallowfield will join with Spencers Wood and Three Mile Cross to make Spencers Wood and Swallowfield ward.
In the north, the smorgasbord of one and two councillor wards will be replaced Twyford, Ruscombe & Hurst ward and Thames ward.
In all these wards, voters will be able to cast three votes for three Labour candidates.
All over the Borough, people are sick and tired of the government supported by John Redwood.
All over the Borough people are looking for a change of government.
And all over the Borough people are expecting that government to be a Labour government.
A lot has changed since 2010 ushered in 14 years of coalition and Conservative failure.
Wherever you live in the Borough, show you are willing to give your Labour candidates – and a Labour government – a chance by voting Labour with either your postal vote or at the polling station on May 2.
Cllr Andy Croy is the leader of Wokingham Labour and ward member for Bulmershe and Whitegates
