Cllr Pauline Jorgensen

Last week’s column by the Deputy Leader of Wokingham Borough Council, Cllr Prue Bray, was much of the same that we hear week in and week out from the Liberal Democrats: partnership working.

Never mind the fact that all their ideas about having joined up working is the same approach taken when the previous Conservative administration produced a Council Plan for 2020-2024.

What the Liberal Democrats seem to have entirely forgotten is that you, the resident, are their most important partner.

Partnership working should not be a soundbite or an end in itself.

When it works, it should bring tangible, measurable benefit to our community. This can be seen in the previous Conservative administration working with external partners, that lead to our award-winning regeneration of Wokingham town centre. We hear very little of any measurable benefit of the Liberal Democrats partnership working.

But where do you rank in their vision for the future of Wokingham Borough? Sadly, pretty low down.

Instead, the Liberal Democrat administration prioritises “a number of organisations and community representatives” but doesn’t mention residents and businesses.

When you communicate your views, the Liberal Democrats are invariably going to ignore you.

They, and their Labour coalition partners, ignored the results of public consultations on household waste, moving to fortnightly collections when a meagre 24% said they liked it. They ignored residents who told them they wanted the Council to move to all out elections instead of the current system of elections by thirds, a change which would have saved millions of pounds – something to remember when the Liberal Democrats say that the Council has no money.

Petitions from residents opposing the doubling of car parking charges have also been ignored. The Liberal Democrats prevented residents having a debate on development at Hall Farm, despite previous planning debates going ahead under the Conservative administration.

The Liberal Democrats’ attitude to local people expressing their views was clearly expressed by a Liberal Democrat Executive Member describing one petition by residents as “spurious”.

Twice the Liberal Democrats have attempted to change the Council’s Constitution to limit councillors speaking at meetings. In March, they put forward an amendment that was thankfully defeated, but would have prevented councillors and members of the public from asking questions.

Instead, the questions would have appeared on a screen, with the public viewing the meeting having no clear idea of what the questions actually are.

A previous attempt last October to stop questions being asked at Council would have meant that only the answers would be read out by Executive Members.

The Liberal Democrats have attempted to supress debate and limit meaningful scrutiny. The Executive Member for Finance having openly said “We want to be able to control the debate and not have people grandstanding in meetings” during a Council meeting in July last year.

What they consider ‘grandstanding’ others would regard as expressing a different point of view and providing proper scrutiny of decisions.

It is necessary for our democracy to have effective opposition to any administration, and the Conservative Group intends to provide that however, inconvenient it is for the Liberal Democrats.

We will also defend residents’ right to hold the administration to account. When the administration forgets them, we have been bringing their voice to the Council whether it’s raising the concerns residents express to us or presenting petitions.

If we are elected to run the Council next May, we will listen to you.

Conservatives will take on board the views of residents, businesses, and organisations, and ensure that consultations are meaningful. We recognise what the Liberal Democrats don’t: you are in charge.

Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is the leader of Wokingham Conservatives and ward member for Hillside

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