Last Friday, I attended an early morning meeting of Wokingham Positive Difference. A local business initiative, established in 2016, and organized by Graeme Hobbs and his team, the group brings together business, voluntary and charitable organizations, and the borough council. The aim is to foster relationships that will benefit the community of which we are all part, creating a Positive Difference. It was an inspiring meeting and set me thinking again about the importance of partnerships.
We are fortunate in Wokingham Borough to have such community-minded businesses, with a strong sense of social responsibility. We are fortunate, too, to have so many excellent local charities and other voluntary and community groups, which do such great work to help our residents.
The council, for its part, is committed to working in partnership – not just with local businesses, charities, and other voluntary and community groups, but also with a very wide range of other bodies. That commitment has deepened over the last three years, under the current administration at Wokingham Borough Council. Partnership is now one of the council’s defining themes.
We have tried, over the last three years, to build a better relationship with our town and parish councils, which in the past were not always properly appreciated. While there is still much to be done, the relationship seems to have noticeably improved, with some successful collaborations.
The council formed a strategic partnership with the University of Reading over a year ago and has been reaping the benefits in terms of access to the research and expertise of a world-class higher education institution. In return, the university can demonstrate impact on public policy in areas such as climate emergency and jobs and skills, which helps it raise external funding.
We also work closely with the Youth Council, made up of young people at schools across the borough. The partnership enables us to gain insights into the perspectives of our young citizens and gives the Youth Council members the opportunity to grill local councillors and MPs.
All these different groups (and others) played a key role in shaping our Communities Vision 2035, which captures the broad aspirations of our area and is a major influence on the council’s priorities for the coming decade. Led by a steering group of volunteers from the community, the Communities Vision has been supported by the borough council but not shaped by it; this is very much a bottom-up not a top-down piece of work.
As with all relationships, partnerships can go through difficult patches and need to be nurtured and supported. But the benefits they can bring are very great. By pooling experience, expertise, knowledge, and resources – human, material, and financial – we can achieve more together than any one of us can on our own. The community we all want to serve is the winner when we all work collaboratively.
Partnership working makes good sense at any time, but it will surely acquire an even greater importance in the years to come.
Wokingham Borough Council, as this week’s Wokingham Today reports, faces a significant cut in the money it receives from central government over the next three years. Working with others to ensure that we can collectively make the biggest possible positive difference has never been more imperative.
Cllr Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
