By Cllr Gary Cowan
After 27 wonderful years as the Borough Councillor for Arborfield it’s time to call it a day.
I came into local politics for two reasons. The first was to do right for Arborfield and Wokingham residents. Second was to help Wokingham District Council as it was then, to become a more resilient organisation better fitted to deliver what residents want and pay for.
As a Conservative I won in 1997 against an excellent opponent in Steve Bacon. A quarter of a century later, standing as an Independent in May 2022, over 75% of the electorate voted for me to continue as their representative.
Looking back to 1997 I remember the District Council as a caring organisation that, while it didn’t get things right all the time, was conscious of its duty and worked to improve itself.
Over the years things have not changed for the better.
I’d like to see our Borough Council become an outward looking organisation that is focused on delivering for residents.
In Westminster, every resident is represented by one MP, but a Borough Council sees every resident represented by three councillors – three times the cost for a third of the responsibility looks less like a representative democracy.
As an independent, it seems to me that this change has been introduced to benefit political parties and not residents. Having larger wards triples the cost for an independent candidate for canvassing, electoral material etc. So, Westminster has managed to get Whitehall to start the process of erasing independent political representation.
It may be easier for the big political parties, but residents and democracy will be the poorer for it.
There are some suggestions I’d like to put forward as I feel that our Council needs to move fairly and squarely into the 21st Century.
Almost all companies record phone calls and in most, but not all, cases emails/letters to ensure that customers get timely replies.
Things do go wrong from time to time and customers have every right to complain about a service or product that doesn’t live up to the standard they expect. It might help the Council if there were a publicly visible scoring system on a department-by-department basis.
This would with transparency and could reduce bureaucracy. It would also change any perception that the Council acts as both judge and jury.
If it included elected Councillors, it could prevent an issue from mushrooming into something that takes far more time and resource to resolve.
The Council would also do well to reform the process for complaints about Councillors into one that is both transparent and scrupulously fair – as nearby Councils have all done for years.
For me as an independent back-bencher, while I’ve enjoyed many successes down the years, the one that shines out was persuading fellow Councillors in 2023 to agree to overhaul WBC’s Constitution – to make it fit for the 21st Century.
If carried out successfully, then perhaps the end of my time at Wokingham Borough Council may not be marked with the more usual failure that dogs every politician.
With my beloved Katie, wife of 57 years, passing away two years ago and my sailing past 80 (years not mph), a recent kidney removal together with ongoing chemo for prostate cancer have all meant that I am able to walk the ward no longer. Leading me to the inevitable recognition that it’s time to pass the baton on to others.
It only remains for me to say thank you to Arborfield and other residents of the Borough for your continued support – it’s been an honour (and often a pleasure) to serve you all.
Cllr Gary Cowan is councillor for Arborfield at Wokingham Borough Council
