Thank you to the electors of Wokingham Borough for turning out in large numbers to vote in last week’s local elections. Turnout everywhere was up, which is an encouraging sign that local democracy is in robust health.
Thank you especially to those of you who voted for your Liberal Democrat candidates. We were defending eleven of the nineteen seats in contention and ended up with twelve of the nineteen councillors elected. That net gain of one councillor increases the size of the Liberal Democrat group on the borough council and means that we have a bigger majority than before the election.
To have retained control of the council at this tumultuous time in British politics, when incumbency is usually a great disadvantage, is no mean feat. To have increased our majority is still more remarkable. The Liberal Democrats have led the council for the last four years and now are about to embark on a fifth.
The rise of Reform and the Greens posed a new challenge. Neither party succeeded in winning a seat at last week’s elections. The Greens, however, may have cost the Lib Dems one seat, and they certainly contributed to Labour losing another. Both those seats were lost to the Conservatives, who would have made progress if they had not lost two seats to the Liberal Democrats. In the end, the Conservatives remained with nineteen councillors, the very same number they had before the election. Despite their high hopes and vigorous campaigning, they made no gains in Woodley and Earley.
Reform did well enough to come second in several seats, but their biggest impact was probably to bring electors out to vote against them. In Wokingham anti-Reform sentiment is certainly stronger than pro-Reform sentiment.
I would like, of course, to think that the success of the Liberal Democrats in retaining control of the council with an increased majority reflects the electorate’s belief that we have provided calm, stable, and responsible leadership while all around us is turmoil and instability. In very difficult financial circumstances, with government reducing our funding, we have still been able to balance our budget and even bring in improvements. We have continued to invest to ensure a better future for the borough.
I also believe that the good people of Wokingham Borough rejected the politics of division and hatred and have responded warmly to our aim to make the borough a place where everyone, whoever they are, can thrive and make their contribution to our community.
Wokingham, despite what some might say, is not broken. Like everywhere else it has its problems and it has members of its community who need a helping hand, but it’s still a great place to live and work. It has good schools and a world-class university (with which the council has forged a strategic partnership to give us access to its expertise). It has beautiful countryside, which our new local plan seeks to protect, while at the same time providing the level of new housing that the government tells us we must provide. It has great businesses, large and small, with a strong sense of community responsibility. It has an enormous range of clubs and societies that provide leisure and recreational opportunities, which the council supports through its new community lottery. And it has a fantastic voluntary and charitable sector, which works in partnership with the council to support those in our community who need help.
To those who sought to sow division and exploit grievance in the recent elections, my message is simple. It’s time to stop talking Wokingham down and start celebrating what makes us strong.
