The Liberal Democrat Constitution begins by stating that the Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.
It then goes on to specify that we reject all prejudice and discrimination based upon race, colour, religion, age, disability, sex or sexual orientation and oppose all forms of entrenched privilege and inequality.
Noble values to aspire to, so what are we doing to make this work at our Local Council level? We believe that all of our differences are important and valuable to our society and need to be recognised. We must work to remove all forms of discrimination.
So, we start by making everyone think about how we can support our differences in all of the areas that we work in and our decisions.
So, what have we done, so far?
- Regularly fought to keep Blue badge parking bays where we need them. Next to the shops, Leisure Centres and Libraries, ensuring that those with mobility problems are able to access the same services as everyone else.
- Ensured that Wokingham Borough Council completes an Equalities Impact Assessment for every executive decision, making sure that everyone is considered
- Ensure that residents with disabilities are provided for in Planning Applications.
- Pushed Wokingham Borough Council to recognise and support minority groups, beyond the bare legal minimum – such as getting the rainbow flag raised for LGBT Pride and the Black Lives Matter event.
- Supported special transport provisions for Students with Special Needs.
- Ensured that all Wokingham Borough Council staff have received training on equalities and preventing discrimination.
With fighting inequality in mind, one area of concern that I have is how our 54 Wokingham Borough Councillors represent our community. As it stands, with my best speculative guess, we have the following numbers:
- Three of our Councillors are non-white i.e 5.5 (While 16.4% of the residents of Wokingham Borough Council are described as BAME)
- Two of our Councillors are LGBT i.e 3.7%
- 18 of our Councillors are women I.e 33.3% (Both the Liberal Democrats and Labour groups have near 50/50 gender ratios – so guess which party is letting the side down here)
- Eight of our Councillors are under 50 – only 14.8%
I cannot speculate for every category, but I think this illustrates the point.
Clearly to ensure that everyone in our Community is properly represented, we need more variety of people in our Council meetings – more women, more people under 50 and more people from other under-represented groups.
Otherwise decisions end up being made for us by people who cannot share our perspective.
So, if you don’t think this is good enough in 21st Century Wokingham, come and join us.
Cllr Imogen Shepherd-DuBey is the Liberal Democrat councillor Emmbrook ward on Wokingham Borough Council and the party’s lead spokesperson for equality, diversity and inclusivity
