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By Cllr Stephen Conway
The financial pressures on the council, as for every household in the borough, are no less this year than last.
Inflation is still with us. Demand for our services, especially in the areas of home-to-school transport and adult social care, continues to grow at an unsustainable rate. Interest rates remain high and rising. Central government has given the council inadequate core funding, meaning we rely to a much great extent than other councils do on what resources we can generate ourselves.
All around us, councils are struggling to balance their books. Several have effectively gone bankrupt, leading the government to step in and appoint commissioners to take over, introducing deep cuts in services and raising the council tax to a much higher level than in other local authority areas.
We are determined to avoid that fate befalling Wokingham, even if it requires us to make tough devious that we would rather not make. Sound finance is the basis of a good council; without it, we can do nothing to serve you and your community.
Considerable though the challenges are this year, I have reasons for optimism about our ability to weather the storms ahead.
First, we surmounted similar challenges last year. We not only eliminated the in-year deficit that we inherited from our predecessors, but also started the process of rebuilding the council’s general fund balance, it’s general reserve. We did that thanks to hard work by council officers and courageous decision-making by councillors.
Second, we are forging productive and effective relationships with external partners in the voluntary and charitable sector, faith groups, the Youth Council, town and parish councils, businesses, schools, the university, health providers, and the emergency services. These partnerships help ensure that the people of the borough receive the help they need by pooling ideas, knowledge, data, person-power, and resources. Gone are the days when the council sought to do everything itself; we are embracing partnership working to benefit from collaborative efforts to achieve agreed objectives.
Finally, I have great faith in the good sense and intelligence of the people of the borough. You know, from you own experiences of running households, or your own working life, that financial solvency is vital. I have every confidence that if we share with you the challenges we face, you will appreciate that tough decisions are necessary and will resist those siren voices telling you that there’s an easy and painless way to deal with the problems.
We have seen in recent years the dangers of peddling simple solutions to complex problems. Now is the time for a more grown-up approach, which seeks to explain the difficult choices clearly and honestly and brings you into the conversation at an early stage.
Cllr Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council and ward member for Twyford
