By Cllr Pauline Jorgensen
Earlier this month, I was honoured to be elected by Conservative colleagues to serve as their Leader on the Borough Council.
With a new Liberal Democrat-led coalition administration taking charge of the Council, I wanted to set out for you the points I made at the Annual Council meeting on how we intend to approach being in Opposition.
The Lib Dem/Labour coalition has inherited an enviable legacy from 20 years of Conservative administration.
Wokingham Borough is one of the best places in the UK and is the healthiest place to live. Sound financial management has meant that we have been able to maintain and increase services, put investment into new facilities across the Borough, and develop an income stream that is funding better outcomes for residents.
The Conservatives secured new schools and sixth forms and completed or began new leisure centres.
We delivered new social homes and set aside £57million for building and modernising affordable and social housing.
We delivered new greenways and cycleways, doubled spending on road maintenance, and are in the middle of a programme to reduce congestion.
We also provided unprecedented support to families and businesses during the pandemic and its aftermath, including millions of pounds in grants. The administration must continue our policy of backing people in need during these difficult times.
I hope that the Lib-Lab coalition will continue and build on the legacy and priorities that we put in place.
The Conservative Group’s pledge to residents is that we intend to approach Opposition differently to the Liberal Democrats.
Given the voters have ensured that no party was elected with a majority on the Council, we fully support the need to work together to tackle the challenges ahead.
Where we believe the Liberal Democrat-led Group are doing things that are of benefit to Borough residents, we will support them, but we will also hold them to account when they fail.
I hope that the new coalition will look at ways to introduce more challenge to Council meetings – perhaps with dedicated questions to the Council Leader from the Opposition Leader, like at PMQs, or more space given to debates on motions.
We will provide challenge where it is needed, but will support where we share objectives.
In the past, we have worked together to press for pilot programmes on housing. The Local Plan needs to be addressed with urgency – failing to get on means that we are at the mercy of developers.
Various coalition councillors promised on their election literature that they would protect their areas from development. As we all know, the best protection from development is a Local Plan.
We look forward to conversations about how to progress the Plan, and we would be willing to help the Lib-Lab coalition continue the successful conversations that we had been having with Government to reduce housing numbers.
The message from residents is clear: we must put aside our differences more for the benefit of the Borough.
I have a fantastic team around me who I’m looking forward to working with over the coming year.
We will provide scrutiny, we will provide challenge to the coalition, and we will make the case to the residents of this great Borough on why they should return a Conservative administration at the next election.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is the leader of Wokingham Conservatives, and member for Hillside
