By Cllr Pauline Jorgensen
Did you know that Wokingham Borough has one of the highest levels of car ownership in England at 91%, compared to 78% nationally?
It’s not difficult to understand why. We live in Borough made up of small towns and villages with a semi-rural character. Not all residents have access to regular, reliable public transport near where they live, and when it does exist it often doesn’t go where people need to.
We have a high proportion of older residents, advancing age can lead to reduced mobility, and a car can allow greater independence.
Wokingham Borough is also a popular area for young families. While we want all children to be able to walk to school, we know that people lead busy lives. Making nursery and school drop offs and pick up, after school activities, doing a family food shop all in the working week can be easier with a car.
For many of our residents their car is an expensive necessity not an optional luxury.
Wokingham Borough Conservative councillors believe how you get about is a choice you should make. You are, after all, best placed to know how to run your life.
Last year, the Liberal Democrats more than doubled parking charges in Council car parks and they extended charging hours in the mornings, evenings and Sundays.
Businesses have repeatedly told the Liberal Democrats the doubling of parking charges is affecting trade in our town centres. The Liberal Democrats’ response is it’s “too easy to blame Wokingham Borough Council”. At Christmas, where the Conservatives had previously offered shoppers free parking, the Liberal Democrats funded free bus travel for shoppers to spend their money in towns outside the Borough.
We’d previously argued that the Liberal Democrats are following an anti-car agenda in their administration of the Council. If the eye-watering increases in charges weren’t enough, motorists haven’t seen any benefits of paying more with the road maintenance budget frozen despite the Council receiving extra pothole repair funding from the Government.
This year charges have risen again, with one- and two-hour parking in Council car parks going up. But that isn’t all. Parking charges at California Country Park are going up too, by 15% to £2.30 per hour, and a four-hour ticket increasing by 14% to £9.20. For comparison inflation is currently 3.2%.
This means that a dog walker using the country park every day would pay almost an extra £10 in an average month. This will hammer hard-pressed families looking for a cheap day out now that the nicer weather is coming.
If you’re a parent or grandparent taking the children to the park for the day once a week in the summer holidays you will pay £55.20 instead of £48 last year.
In September last year, the Liberal Democrats claimed that there were no detailed plans when proposals for on-street parking charges were accidentally revealed. Now we know that wasn’t accurate, the Liberal Democrats were, all along, looking to introduce on-street charges of up to £1.50 per hour where previously you could park free for 30 minutes.
Following on from using taxpayers’ money to pay for bus travel away from shops in the Borough, they’re making it even harder to make a quick car journey into town to use our local businesses.
This is just another example of the Liberal Democrats not being straight with residents and deciding before consulting. It is part of a pattern of Lib Dems ignoring residents’ views.
We saw this when they tried to sneak through a massive reduction litter bins, presumably hoping no one would notice, we saw it with the move to weekly waste where despite the skewed consultation less than 25% of residents backed the scheme.
A Conservative administration would reverse the Liberal Democrats’ punishing car parking charge increases. We know this is what you want, and we would deliver on your priorities.
The last two years have demonstrated that the Liberal Democrats disregard residents’ views. Their anti-car policies. Their ignoring of petitions and pre-empting consultations have demonstrated they can’t be relied on to put your priorities ahead of their ideology.
If you want change vote Conservative on May 2.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is the leader of Wokingham Conservatives and standing for election in Hillside ward
