THE LIB DEMS are not anti-car says its leader, Sir Ed Davey.
He was visiting Reading and Wokingham to drum up support for the party’s general election candidate Clive Jones, and meet activists and residents in the run-up to the local elections on May 2.
The Royal Berkshire Hospital was the first stop on his tour, before heading to Market Place in Wokingham’s town centre, and then knocking on doors in the constituency.
One of the key election battlegrounds in Wokingham is related to motoring: the works at California Crossroads, increasing car parking charges, the amount of potholes, and the volume of traffic.
In recent weeks, Wokingham MP Sir John Redwood has been raising the issue on his blog.
He recently wrote: “Lib Dem Wokingham Council hates drivers. They do not want us driving to work, taking children to school by car, going to the shops in a vehicle. They want to make the lives of delivery van drivers bringing goods to our home and truck drivers taking things to our shops and factories more difficult.
“They do not seem to like taxis, and see delaying the ambulance or fire engine as acceptable collateral damage in their campaign to get people out of vehicles.”
Responding, Sir Ed said it was simply not true the party was anti-motorist and instead suggested the issue was the result of Conservative policies.
“When I come to many councils previously run by Conservatives, we find their finances in a mess, because they have done a really bad job running local council finances,” he said.
“We find the roads in a mess. Quite a lot of previously Conservative-run councils have got pothole problems.
“It’s interesting that John Redwood used to say Wokingham didn’t have enough money, it had less money from central government than any other unitary authority per resident. He failed to tackle that.”
In a 2018 blog post, Sir John wrote that he had been pushing government for increased funding: “I have been working hard on the issues around money for local services in Wokingham … As a result Wokingham will see one of the largest increases in spending power, with a gain of 6.3% compared to the England average of 2.8%.”
Sir Ed continued: “Conservatives are to blame for the dire state of Wokingham’s finances and the roads.
“I’m really proud the Liberal Democrats have taken some tough decisions, but they are determined to be prudent and to gradually rebuild Wokingham’s finances and roads so we can, once again, put the pride back into Wokingham that the Conservatives tarnished.”
