By Cllr Andy Croy
There is only one thing worse than being in a Council meeting and that is the knowledge that if we were not there, the other lot would be getting their way over everything.
It might not be the most optimistic view of political activism but it is certainly an important consideration. Watching the local Conservatives implode as they continue to come to terms with their loss of power has been eye opening to say the least.
Before Christmas, the Conservatives presented a petition calling for the car parking increases to be dropped.
In the Council’s debate on the petition I asked the leader of the Conservatives to confirm that – should they be returned to power – the Conservatives would return car parking charges to their current levels as demanded by the petition the Conservatives had just presented.
This is what she said: “The reason we haven’t committed to reversing the charges is actually we haven’t got the business case, for starters, we haven’t seen the figures. We don’t actually believe some of the figures we have been told because obviously the Liberals don’t know the revenue figures for the car parks but that’s an aside.
“Secondly, we haven’t been asked. We are currently preparing an alternative budget and I would be quite keen to make sure that we do not increase the car parking charges to the same extent that the Liberals are proposing which will …[interruption].. I am not committing until we finish the budget.
“What am I telling you is that we would not increase car parking charges as you are doing.
“We will bring forward an alternative budget at the appropriate time and you will see in that budget what we will do.”
So that is clear then. Present a petition asking the Liberal Democrats to reverse the car parking charges but then refuse to commit to make the same reversals. It is either deeply dishonest or deeply confused. Hopefully the Conservatives can clarify their position soon.
In full council last week, their confusion was again on display. For many years, the Conservative Council has pursued a “cars first policy”. The assertion that “we have the highest proportion of car ownership than anywhere else in the country” has become an excuse to let the car rule. Any suggestion that traffic needs to be calmed and that pedestrians and wheelers should be given safer alternatives have at best been ignored and at worse been decried as a part of some mythical “war on motorists”. Traffic flow – motor traffic flow – is supreme and all other travel is subservient.
Time and time again we have seen new roads optimised for the flow of traffic, regardless of the needs of others to use or cross the same roads. I have lost count of the number opportunities to make the roads safer that we have lost. I have lost count of the number of requests from councillors and members of the public to make particular roads safer.
Now that they are in opposition, the Conservatives are suddenly complaining about the very road designs they approved and the pro-car culture which they have encouraged and baked into the council for decades. It really is quite something.
With election season approaching, Conservative councillors are under strict instructions to say something – to say anything – so as to appear like they are paying attention. In one particularly bizarre exchange a Conservative seemed to be so desperate to be noticed that they asked a question about a missed meeting – even though explanation had previously been communicated by email.
The meeting was rounded off by, once again, the Conservatives being at odds with reality.
The current (Conservative) Department for Education guidance does not compel schools to offer girls the same opportunities as boys to play football. Girls should have the same opportunities offered to them. Instead, the DfE says girls must be offered “comparable sporting activities”.
Our schools are buckling under the pressure of years of underfunding, teachers are leaving profession in record numbers and, next week, teachers are due to strike in despair.
Into this landscape, our local Conservatives, most of who struggled to distinguish between club and school football, think telling teachers they ‘must try harder’ is a worthwhile use of anyone’s time or that anyone will take them seriously.
There’s only one thing worse than the Conservatives in opposition. And that is the Conservatives in power. So it could be worse.
Cllr Andy Croy is a Labour member for Bulmershe and Whitegates ward on Wokingham Borough Council
