Local councils need to be able to work collaboratively with their MPs to promote and defend the interests of the people whom they are all there to serve.
Wokingham Borough Council is no exception. We need to work with the borough MPs to ensure that our voice is heard in the corridors of power in Whitehall and Westminster and our challenges are properly understood by ministers and civil servants.
Until this recent general election, Wokingham had four MPs representing different areas of the borough, with John Redwood as MP for Wokingham (which included most of the borough), Theresa May as MP for Maidenhead (which covered the northern part of the borough), Matt Rodda as MP for Reading East (which took in parts of the eastern edge of the borough), and James Sunderland, MP for Bracknell (who represented borough residents in the far south east).
I tried to work with all these MPs, writing to them regularly to seek their support in the council’s battles with the government. It’s fair to say that I received a varied response. I found Theresa May and Matt Rodda particularly helpful; I want to take this opportunity to record my thanks to them, especially Mrs May, who used her influence to Wokingham’s benefit on several occasions.
The new parliamentary boundaries have simplified the situation. Rather than four MPs, there are now two representing the borough – Clive Jones for Wokingham and Yuan Yang for the new Early and Woodley constituency.
Clive, of course, I know well. He was my predecessor as leader of Wokingham Borough Council and I served as his deputy from 2022 to 2023.
He is local to the area and knows it well. He is very familiar with the challenges the council faces, particularly the lack of core revenue support from central government (of all the councils in the country with responsibility for adult and children’s social care, we receive the least revenue support). I know he will do all he can to help us get a fairer deal that reflects the true costs of delivering complex and expensive social care for members of our community.
I had the pleasure of meeting Yuan Yang at the election count. She is an impressive person, whom I feel confident I can work constructively, even though we are of different political parties.
A lot has changed, both in the country and in Wokingham. I look forward to embracing the positive possibilities that change offers.
By Stephen Conway
