By Lucy Demery
We have had another fantastic and busy week on the campaign trail.
I’ve been knocking on doors to speak with residents every day this week across Wargrave, Finchampstead, Wokingham Without, Evendons, Wescott, Winnersh and Norreys.
We were joined on the doorstep in Wargrave by Rt Hn Theresa May and her husband, Sir Philip, who have loyally served the local community for 27 years.
Wargrave, Twyford and surrounding villages are moving from Maidenhead to Wokingham at this election. Sir John Redwood also joined us on the doorstep in Finchampstead and shared insights from his service of 37 years — longer than I’ve been alive.
I teamed up with neighbouring Parliamentary Candidates, Pauline Jorgensen and Tania Mathias, for a joint campaign to protect our countryside in the areas where Wokingham borders Earley & Woodley and Maidenhead, respectively.
Lib Dems and Labour continue to threaten to concrete over our green spaces and fail to make provision for additional capacity for our roads, GPs, schools and water infrastructure.
On the weekends, I also joined the community for lovely local events, Swallowfield Summer Fete and Wokingham Lions’ Classic Motor Show.
Midweek, I visited Wokingham Community Hub and met with the inspiring volunteers and staff of Wokingham Volunteer Centre, Citizens Advice, Link, CLASP, Project Salama and Promise Inclusion.
As an active community volunteer myself, I’m keen to support Wokingham’s voluntary sector. The common theme across these meetings was the importance of prevention and early intervention – to promote community wellbeing and the most high-impact use of taxpayer and donor funding.
I also visited two schools in the community.
Students at High Close School, a special school in Wokingham, kindly invited me to speak with them in preparation for their mock General Election. I’m keen to engage the next generation in our democratic process.
I also visited Holme Grange School and was very impressed by their excellent provision, growth and innovation. Principal Claire Robinson shared with me the serious anxieties of parents and staff about looming VAT plans from Labour.
Many families work incredibly hard and sacrifice much to send their children to schools like Holme Grange. Many will be unable to afford VAT and we’ll see larger class sizes in state schools when students are forced to out of the independent sector. Only the Conservatives are determined to stop VAT on schools.
Residents continue to tell me of their significant frustrations with public service delivery under the Lib Dem-run Wokingham Council.
They have hiked council tax, increased charges for basic services like high street parking, cut spending on roads, caused huge disruption with ineffective highway projects which have been indefinitely delayed.
This is despite significant increases in funding from our Conservative Government to Wokingham Council. Lib Dems have wasted taxpayer funds, increased the cost of living and weakened key public services.
Much of this was overseen by the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate when he led the Council.
Government and Parliament require real competence and dynamism to get things done. I’m determined to deliver for residents and make our community proud.
Lucy Demery is the Conservative candidate for Wokingham in the general election
