A PROPOSAL that Wokingham Borough Council should join a scheme designed to limit male violence against women and girls has been dismissed by Conservatives as “needlessly duplicating existing work”.
At the council meeting held on Thursday, November 18, Liberal Democrat councillor David Hare asked the chamber to approve joining the White Ribbon UK movement which asks men to commit to never conducting, excusing or remaining silent on the issue.
Cllr Hare said: “Having asked the Tories to second this motion on Tuesday (council leader) John Halsall at last got back to me asking me to withdraw it as he said the Council equalities agenda covered it all.”
He added: “The truth is that often women can’t get away from violence, at work, in a controlling marriage, with family and from total strangers.”
The motion was seconded by the party’s Wokingham leader, Cllr Clive Jones, who said: “I cannot for one minute believe that any member of this council can vote against this motion.”
However, Cllr Laura Blumenthal proposed an amendment to the motion pointing out that the council’s Equalities Working Group would be meeting January to explore proposed training.
“I totally agree with the spirit of the motion,” she told the chamber. “This Council is committed to doing everything it can to protect its residents from violence and harassment.
“The cross-party Equalities working group will scrutinise the proposed training in January 2022. Then we can see how thorough it is and whether there are any gaps that organisations such as White Ribbon could help us with. This is the reason for the amendment to the motion,” she said.
Fellow Conservative, Cllr Rebecca Margetts, said that this was an issue that ran well beyond the boundaries of Wokingham.
Labour group leader Cllr Rachel Burgess said she was appalled that the Conservatives would not support the original motion. “It’s not a women’s problem, it‘s not up to women to change their behaviour.
“It (male violence) has to stop now.
She added that the Conservative, by failing to back the motion, were “kicking the can down the road again” asking them: “What do I tell my daughter about her right to feel safe on the streets?”
Lib Dem Cllr Sarah Kerr said: “Almost every woman at this meeting tonight, will have survived some form of sexual harassment or assault. For some of us, it will have been on multiple occasions. It is such a widespread, daily occurrence that it is rare to find a woman who hasn’t experienced some kind of sexual harassment or assault.”
She said that she should be able to go out on an evening and not have her drink spiked, not have to hide in a shop until a stalker stops following her, end the lewd gestures.
The council’s actions are, she said, “a positive step forward but it barely scratches the surface of what needs to be done.
“The council have adopted an equalities plan, which doesn’t mention women or girls in it even once,” she said, ending her speech looking at the Conservative benches: “I am so angry actually, I am really angry.”
The debate had to end at 10.30pm, as the Conservatives had earlier in the meeting voted against extending it by half-an-hour. In a named vote, the Conservative amendment was passed, despite opposition parties voting against.
After the meeting, Wokingham Conservatives issued a statement saying the proposals “needlessly duplicated existing work” as they were either already being implemented or planned.
The party said the Council will launch a new Domestic Violence Strategy in the new year, and employ a new staff member specialising in domestic abuse.
The party said that Cllr Blumenthal had called on the Liberal Democrats to support her amendment to refer the matter to the Equalities Working Group, and to work constructively on that cross-party group to shape the Council’s strategies.
Instead, they said, “the Opposition refused to do so, putting politics before working cross-party on practical help for women”.
Cllr Blumenthal said: “I totally agree with the spirit of the motion, and the Council is committed to doing everything it can to protect residents from violence and harassment.
“However, the motion would spend taxpayers’ money duplicating work already being done by Conservatives on this Council and in Government, and for that reason, we put down an amendment for a working group to examine whether there were any benefits to what the motion proposes.”
