By Cllr Clive Jones
Following the local elections in May, 23 Liberal Democrat councillors along with three Labour and two Independent councillors agreed to create the Wokingham Borough Partnership, with an administration being run by the Liberal Democrats.
Our partnership is based on trust and a willingness to work together in the interests of Wokingham residents.
There is 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 tackle the considerable challenges that the borough faces. As I have said before, no party has a monopoly of good ideas.
I recently met with the Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove and received confirmation that he will meet with the new Council Leadership and senior officers to see how we can reduce housing numbers in Wokingham.
We are ready to engage with our four local MPs who currently come from the Conservative and Labour parties to work on reducing housing numbers and engaging with the government to address other issues such as Adult social care bills that could easily bankrupt the Council in the next few years.
This week, I also met with the Conservative police and crime commissioner. We had a good meeting and I sure we’ll work well together in the coming months.
The Conservative councillor group were offered the Vice chair of the powerful overview and scrutiny committee and the chair of the Health overview and scrutiny committee, Sadly they declined these offers, taking a different attitude to Conservative MPs and their police and crime commissioner.
I am therefore particularly disappointed to read in last week’s Wokingham Today about Conservative plans to disrupt council meetings and get their own way.
The document produced by the Wokingham Conservative group talks about disrupting council meetings by raising points of order and personal explanation.
We saw these tactics employed at the council meeting on Thursday, June 23,by the new Conservative leader and a very senior long-serving councillor, both of whom should have known better.
The document also talks about the Conservatives planning to claim credit for Lib Dem polices which they think will be popular.
What is really concerning is the Conservative plan to undermine the authority of the mayor. This is particularly worrying and strikes at the very way in which orderly debate is conducted in any council.
In the last week, many residents have expressed their disappointment that the Conservatives are openly planning disruption of council meetings.
I have written to the Conservative Leader asking her if she will distance herself from this document produced for the Conservative group making it very clear she will have nothing to do with these shabby tactics. In doing so I hope she will commit herself to leading a responsible opposition.
Cllr Clive Jones is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council and Lib Dem ward member for Hawkedon
