By Cllr Andy Croy
This week was a good week for Woodley. The Planning Inspectorate threw out an appeal by a Telecoms company to build a massive base station in Vauxhall Park. Wokingham Borough Council officers had rejected the original application last year.
That the park is saved in its entirety for the use of residents is down to the hard of my ward colleague, Councillor Shirley Boyt. Shirley has developed a reputation as a formidable campaigner in the interests of the residents of Woodley and Whitegates.
It was Shirley who spotted that Woodley Town Council had dropped the ball by waving through the first application for a base station in Vauxhall Park.
It was Shirley who recognised that Vauxhall Park is an irreplaceable green oasis in the heart of Woodley.
It was Shirley who organised the initial campaign to persuade officers that the site was too valuable to lose to development and that the developers could equally put their development elsewhere.
And it was Shirley who organised the campaign to ensure that the Planning Inspectorate knew exactly how important the space was too local residents.
Shirley would be the first to say that it ‘was the residents wot won it’ and she would be right. But Shirley has provided the community leadership to ensure the will of residents carried the day.
Shirley’s year 16-month campaign to save Vauxhall Park straddled the period between the Conservatives running Wokingham Borough Council and the current period where they do not run the Council. And to be honest, the political control of the Council made not a blind bit of difference to what Shirley was able to achieve.
Being an effective Councillor is often about understanding the law and negotiating the bureaucracy rather than political control.
This week was also a good week for our Borough. The Extraordinary Council held on Wednesday was one of the most important Council meetings for decades – the future of democracy in our Borough was settled for a generation.
Councillors of all parties joined to vote overwhelmingly to retain the system of voting by thirds. This decision meant that the new wards in the Borough (coming into effect from 2024) will all have three councillors and all residents get to have their say in three years out of four.
No longer will a single bad councillor be a resident’s only representative. No longer will political representatives emerge just for elections and then disappear for three-and-a-half years.
No longer will residents in some parts of the borough wonder why everyone else is having an election but they are not.
No longer will being elected be a cushy little number for people wearing the right coloured rosette.
In short, councillors will have to become much more like Shirley Boyt – standing up for and leading their communities all year round.
Last Thursday’s council meeting also saw the unusual spectacle of Labour, LibDem and former Conservative leaders, all agreeing with each other and disagreeing with the analysis and recommendation of officers to vote for all-out elections.
It is not the job of councillors to blindly do as we are told by officers – it is our job to scrutinise officer recommendations on behalf of residents.
There were some very weak Conservative attempts to support the move to all-out elections. One was centred on ‘savings’ even though the report made clear the ridiculous £4m being bandied about was not a saving that could be spent – a good example of where reading the report would save a lot of embarrassment.
Another, bizarrely, implied we would be going against god’s will if we voted against the recommendation. At first I thought this was an over-excited rhetorical slip – we all make them – but it happened four times so I guess it must be deliberate.
Happily, that councillor has a rector in his ward who recently wrote to this paper demanding that Boris Johnson resign. They could perhaps have a chat about God.
My money is on the councillor learning a thing or two.
Amid all the hullaballoo, Shirley also took the most effective course of action available to her. When the time came, she voted to protect accountability and democracy in our Borough. At the end of the evening, Shirley’s contribution was just as effective as every other councillor in the chamber – calling out her vote when asked to do. In doing this she helped secure Council accountability for a generation.
This week, in two very different ways, Shirley demonstrated how councillors make a difference to the future of our community. Shirley would, of course, downplay the importance of what she does while at the same time talking about half-a-dozen other projects she has on the go.
Shirley sets a high standard as a Councillor and it is right that residents should have the option to elect their own local Shirley every year.
Cllr Andy Croy is a Labour member for Bulmershe & Whitgates ward on Wokingham Borough Council
