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By Cllr Clive Jones
Tonight, I come to the end of my time as the Leader of Wokingham Borough Council. The first Liberal Democrat council leader in Wokingham for 20 years.
It’s been an honour and a privilege to be the leader of the council and to work with so many excellent officers, executive members, and fellow councillors.
I am proud that the Partnership that was created last May between Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent councillors which gave the Borough Council much needed stability and financial competence during the last year.
We wanted to change the culture at the council, we wanted a concentration on partnerships within the council and also with outside bodies and agencies including Town and Parish councils.
I was delighted when Labour councillors were prepared to take on the chairs of the powerful committees, including the Audit Committee and the newly created Climate Emergency Overview and Scrutiny Committee. I was equally delighted when the former independent councillor Jim Frewin took the chair of the Overview and Scrutiny management committee. This was evidence of other councillors also wanting to have a different way of working.
Sadly, the Conservatives took the opposite view. They refused to participate in the organisation of the council turning down the opportunity to chair or vice chair other Overview and scrutiny committees. They preferred instead to deliberately disrupt council meetings. They announced this intention at the end of June saying they would disrupt council meetings, challenge the mayors authority and claim credit for things the Liberal Democrats were doing. A very childish approach from the Conservative leadership, which would see them opposing the Lib Dems all year just because they thought they needed to oppose everything. Many residents told us they were not happy with this negative approach from the Conservatives.
When the Lib Dems took over the administration, within minutes we were immediately advised that there was a £4 million hole in the finances, 18 bus services were under threat of closure from the Conservatives and there was no budget to complete the construction of the Winnersh Triangle Park and ride extension which had been started several years before. With the help of officers and the tenacity of executive members we dealt with these problems. We balanced both the revenue and capital budgets, something the Conservatives failed to do. This was difficult to do with energy costs doubling and inflation raging at more than 10%, inflation as we all know is still at this very high level today.
The cost-of-living crisis was upon us, and many families were struggling to cope. I’m proud that the Lib Dems created a £250,000 hardship fund to help struggling residents cope with the cost-of-living crisis, a policy opposed by the Conservatives.
We guaranteed the funding of free school meals during school holidays for children who normally received free school meals. And we created the Climate emergency Overview and scrutiny committee to ensure that the climate emergency was taken seriously at Wokingham Borough Council and that tackling the Climate emergency was embedded into everything that the council does going forward.
It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to be the Leader and I now look forward to the next chapter of my political journey when I intend to concentrate on the campaign to become the first Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham at the next general election.
After successive gains for the Liberal Democrats in the last five sets of local elections we are now the largest party on the Borough Council, and we have a very good chance of electing the first Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham.
The new Liberal Democrat Leader will be my friend and colleague Cllr Stephen Conway.
I know that I leave the council leadership in good hands.
Stephen and the Liberal Democrat Executive and councillors will continue with our financially sound management of the council and compassionate policies which will try to support the most vulnerable in our community as well as providing the council services that we all rely on in a cost effective and efficient manner.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me.
Cllr Clive Jones is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council and Lib Dem member for Hawkedon
