The LibDems are at it again. And once again residents are angry about LibDem controlled Wokingham Borough and its refusal to consult properly or listen to the people who live here.
Saturday’s well attended meeting made one thing impossible to ignore. Local feeling is strong and frustration is growing about plans to introduce parking charges at Ashenbury Park in Woodley and to change its designation from park to country park with more events held there.
This is not the first attempt to impose charges on car parks that are currently free. In late 2024 plans were uncovered to introduce new fees at Ashenbury, Cantley and other locations. Conservatives campaigned against these plans and the LibDems backed off. Now the charges have returned, and residents are rightly asking why the Council keeps trying to push the same idea through the back door.
Ashenbury is a wild natural park used by dog walkers and people who value its wildlife. The car park also helps reduce congestion for nearby residents during school pick up and drop off for Waingels and Willowbank. Yet the Council pushed ahead with installing a permanent path through the centre of the wild grassy area without proper consultation. This directly contradicted its own biodiversity plan from February 2024 which said paths would remain mown grass. When challenged the Council claimed the path was needed for events. Now they are consulting on parking charges to pay for it.
A resident summed up the feeling in the room by saying, “Paying £900 a year to walk my dog seems a negative step.”
The Council said the path was for disabled access. Yet the path is not easily accessible from the gate or the car park. It feels as though the LibDem administration is determined to upset Woodley residents at every turn.
The Woodlands Avenue cycleway and 20mph limits are another example. The Council did consult and 69% of residents rejected the proposal. Yet in a bizarre press release the LibDems announced they were going ahead anyway while claiming to have listened. Their message was “You said it, we did it.” Residents were left wondering how ignoring a clear majority counts as listening.
The latest frustration is that the LibDems have replaced dropped kerbs to residents’ driveways with an actual kerb. Builders even had to use small wooden ramps for their wheelbarrows. This is not what residents expected with dropped kerbs and in some cases not what they paid for. When questioned the predictable and tone-deaf answer was the usual line that they are built to standard.
Wokingham Borough and the LibDems need to stop assuming they know best and start listening to the people who live here. When Conservatives consult on projects that matter, we listen and we change plans when residents raise concerns.
All parks do not need to be carbon copies of each other.
By Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, leader of Wokingham Convservatives
