By Cllr Pauline Jorgensen
Last April Clive Jones promised that the Liberal Democrats would offer competence and compassion if they were elected.
Unfortunately, there was little of that on show last week when Cllr Imogen Shepherd DuBey, the Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Finance, caused distress and anxiety to both residents and staff when she carelessly made a series of remarks about bankruptcy, widespread cuts to Council services and staff redundancies without any detail and before any consultations could take place.
Despite conceeding that the Council has “pretty good” levels of reserves, she also suggested that the Council could go bankrupt within two years. These statements just don’t add up. Reserves are there to protect the Council against the worst-case scenario.
These comments are also at odds with what senior officers have been saying. At a Council Scrutiny meeting in July we heard that this year’s budget was “challenging but achievable”.
This doesn’t engender confidence in the Council’s political leadership.
Following the publication of her comments in local newspapers two emails were sent out to all Wokingham Borough staff to reassure them that redundancies were not currently being considered. It also stated that “A Section 114 [a Local Authority bankruptcy notice] is not currently a risk for Wokingham Borough Council.”
The first email alluded to “some comments which are not always carefully considered…”
Cllr Shepherd DuBey said that the Council was considering cutting back on non-statutory services without setting out which services were in the firing line.
She only vaguely said, “We have ten libraries in Wokingham Borough Council – there’s a requirement to provide a library service, but not at that level.”
This understandably would worry all library users across the Borough, which are also warm spaces in Winter, and library staff.
It is not the way Council policies or decisions should come out. It is not fair to staff to read they could be made redundant in the newspaper before a proper process and consultation has begun.
And it’s not the way residents should hear about cuts to services either.
Unfortunately, under the Liberal Democrats, supported by Labour, poor decision making has become the norm, one example being the proposed cuts to litter bins, grass cutting and street cleaning where the decision was announced by press release only for the Council to have to apologise for not following the proper process and consult with residents.
The Liberal Democrats are also focused on short term savings and false economies. Cutting litter bins and street sweeping might save in the short term but the mess it will create will cause more expense in the future.
Yet the Liberal Democrats continues to make policy decisions without rigorous financial analysis.
Recently it was announced that that the Council will look to move out of its current offices at Shute End. I am pleased that the Council are looking at opportunities to offer taxpayers better value for money, however, like so many of their other proposals the Liberal Democrats seem to have rushed to a decision.
They have concluded that the best site to move to is the old Marks and Spencer building without fully considering other potential sites in the Borough and before any proper decision-making process can take place, including the cost of moving and refurbishing new offices.
The new Council offices will need to be accessible, but it will also need particular facilities such as an adequate space to hold full council and planning meetings which are open to the public to attend in person and are also broadcast online.
This will be expensive to achieve and will eat into future cost savings of moving to a smaller site.
We want to see greater transparency so that proper scrutiny can take place.
If the Liberal Democrats think their decisions are the best for the Borough then they can have nothing to hide.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is the leader of the Conservative group on Wokingham Borough Council and ward member for Hillside
