A CONSERVATIVE MP joined party members campaigning in Arborfield Green last week.
Johnny Mercer came to the borough where he met Wokingham MP Sir John Redwood and activities as they knocked on doors in the development.
And the Plymouth Moor View MP said it was local issues that was on the minds of people he spoke to, rather than any national issue or the Conservatives’ opinion poll ratings.
“I’ve got to be honest it’s not something I’ve seen reflected on the doors,” he said.
“I think everybody would accept it’s been a very difficult year and things have not always gone as we would have hoped nationally, and I’ve seen that reflected locally in Plymouth.
“But also there are big decisions to make. Clearly, I understand that people are not happy with some of the things that have gone on. As a man who has left government twice I have a lot of sympathy for that.
“What I would say to them is we now have a guy who is Prime Minister [Rishi Sunak] who is competent, who is professional, who gets the challenge of making everyday life better for people in places like Wokingham.
“He’s a good man he governs with a strong set of values and you see that replicated across his work.”
And Sir John said: “People are talking (about) local (issues). I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much people want to talk on the issues relating to their street, their area, their part of the borough.
“So, it’s been very much focused on local issues at their request. I’ve had very little questions over the national position.”
He continued: “The issues for us are that we want to get those car parking charges down, we think that they’re being jacked up against peoples’ interests, it’s putting people off going into town, spending their money and enjoying themselves during the weekend in particular. It’s a disgrace.
“People are very worried about the attack on their refuse service, they don’t want to go over to two weekly for some of the collections, they think it should be the one-week standard the Conservatives when we’re in office, that’s proved to be a very popular campaign for us.”
Sir John also felt that Wokingham’s roads were getting worse under Liberal Democrat control of the council.
Conservative elections promises include reversing parking charge increases for the borough’s off street car parks, retaining weekly waste collections and investing in the road network.
The door knocking took place in a part of the Arborfield Green development that falls within the Barkham ward of Wokingham Borough Council.
The Conservatives said that neighbours in the Waterman’s View part of Arborfield Green are frustrated with a lack of amenities such as a supermarket. This was part of the development which is being built on the site of the former REME barracks.
Mr Mercer said: “It’s really important, the Liberal Democrats and Labour are sharing the council at the moment, it’s traditionally been a Conservative council.
“There’s clearly issues, people are not happy that this has been sold as a village development and a lot of amenities have not been built alongside it.”
Conservative candidate George Evans said: “I think the main issue on the Arborfield Green side of Barkham ward is that there’s loads of infrastructure that has been promised but not been delivered.
“There’s a planning application in now for some of it, but that’s only the beginning of the journey.
“You look at the older part of Barkham, Barkham Ride, Barkham Road, Bearwood, those people are very concerned about these developments popping up such as Edney’s Hill.
“That’s only happening because we haven’t got a Local Plan. We need to pick up the Local Plan and get on with it to protect Barkham.
“They are the two real key things round here: delivering the development that we’ve got going on, and protecting the green spaces that should be protected.”
The Edney’s Hill development is a plan for 40 homes, which can be viewed by typing 223037 into the council’s planning portal.
The Barkham seat has been vacated by Conservative Cllr John Kaiser, who’s represented the area for 12 years. It is being contested by George Evans for the Conservatives, Ian Pittock, a Lib Dem former Conservative councillor, Annette Medhurst of the Labour Party, Asad Feroz from the Greens and Roderick Stevens, an Independent.
The local election takes place on Thursday, May 4.
