THE leader of the Wokingham Conservatives has criticised the Wokingham Borough Partnership for “breaking its first promises on day one”.
Following the authority’s annual council meeting on Thursday, May 19, Cllr Pauline Jorgensen said the new leader of Wokingham Borough Council, Cllr Clive Jones, “talked a good talk” but didn’t deliver on his promise.
She said: “Clive Jones talked a good talk about transparency and co-operation, but he couldn’t manage to get through the meeting where he was appointed leader without throwing it all in the bin.
“At the annual council meeting, I spoke of the need for all political parties to work together – that was the clear message that the voters sent when they left no party with a majority.
“It’s outrageous that coalition councillors are trying to deceive the public into thinking that they are representing their old parties, when the truth is that they’ve merged together to ensure that they gain a stranglehold on the council.
“Coalition councillors have completely ignored the democratic choice just made by residents.”
Cllr Jones disagrees with this as he believes residents “sent a clear message” at the elections on Thursday, May 5.
He said: “We will take no lectures from any Wokingham Conservative on democracy.
“Residents sent a clear message when 62% of voters didn’t vote Conservative.”
The Wokingham Borough Partnership, referred to as a “coalition” by the Conservatives, was formed after the local elections earlier this month.
Wokingham councillors approved the Liberal Democrat-run administration at the meeting last week after it received support from Labour and the two independent councillors.
Cllr Jones insists partnerships like this are common across the country.
He said: “Partnerships like the Wokingham Borough Partnership are common in many places in the country.
“In some parts, the local Conservative group forms some of these partnerships.”
Cllr Jorgensen said her party will do their best to hold the new council to account, with or without cooperation from the administration.
She said: “In an ideal world, they’d do the decent thing, resign their seats and seek re-election for their new party, but the very least they could do is be honest with the public.
“My fantastic Conservative team intends to stick with a spirit of cooperation, even if the new administration won’t.
“We’ll work with the coalition when we agree with them on a common cause, and hold them to account when we think things have gone wrong.
“If their first meeting in charge is anything to go by, someone needs to make sure they are actually keeping their promises.”
Cllr Jones said the new administration is open to cooperation, something he believes the Conservatives didn’t do throughout their time of holding a majority.
He said: “May I remind Pauline Jorgensen that they have always said no to additional representation from other parties.
“The Conservatives clearly don’t want to work together.
“We have offered them chair and vice-chair positions on overview and scrutiny committees but it took them less than five minutes to turn them down.
“These positions are very important but because they don’t have a majority on the committee, they wouldn’t accept the position.
“They clearly don’t understand how these committees work.”
Cllr Jones added: “The Conservatives need to grow up and do proper politics, not just political point scoring.”
