Finchampstead and Barkham
Wokingham Today Page 9 Petitioners hand in 1,100 signatures against homes. I welcome residents involvement but it was very odd that the houses are scheduled for Barkham not Finchampstead so why would 4 Finchampstead Conservative Councillors, Margetts, Weeks, Sargeant and Margetts arrange a photo shoot for this? The answer is simple Cllr Weeks and Sergeant are up for election in May. A similar stunt by Wokingham’s Conservatives who are suddenly opposed 4500+ Houses in Hall Farm in Arborfield.
If the housing plan was so bad then why did they vote for it in the secrecy of their group meetings but yet are against it now? It can only mean one thing its your vote next May they want and they don’t care how low they will sink to get it. Shame on you Conservatives.
The leader of the council said at last weeks executive “I want to make it clear that all this administration, my party and I are completely opposed to the loss of every blade of grass, tree, shrub, field or green space in the borough. Once it’s gone it’s gone forever.” AS LONG AS ITS NOT IN REMENHAM or HURST he should have added.
Wokingham Borough Council’s executive member for planning Cllr Wayne (NO HOUSES IN HURST) Smith explained that the council wants to build 4500 houses at Hall Farm / Loddon Valley, a location where he says 2,200 could be built by 2037/38. This means that 4500+ houses will create a building site lasting at least 35 years. To 2057 yes 2057 or longer.
Cllr Wayne (no houses in Hurst) Wayne Smith added Hall Farm / Loddon Valley as the main new area to meet development needs. Nothing in Hurst and Remenham I notice.
Cllr Wayne (No houses in Hurst) Smith said: “We will review all comments made by residents in our final assessments.” He forgot to add as long as it’s not Remenham of Hurst.
Areas like Finchampstead that have escaped the housing bullet this time around must not be smug as any green space in the South of the Borough will fall before Cllr. Wayne ( No houses in Hurst ) Smith will be letting one blade of grass be touched in this beloved Hurst.
Only an X against any name but a Conservative will save the south of the borough from the cement mixer and chain saw. As the leader of the council puts it once it’s gone its gone. At least he got that right.
Cllr Gary Cowan, Independent Borough Councillor for Arborfield at Wokingham Borough Council
Abuse is abuse, work is the work
Clearly, Councillors Kerr and Shepherd-DuBey are unable ‘to let it go’. And now more letters on The White Ribbon issue.
I feel compelled to respond, most particularly because Ms Shepherd-DuBey had the temerity on Full council evening, to patronisingly say “You just don’t understand” over and over again.
The other councillors and I (because my children and I suffered up-skirting, chronic inappropriate language, sexist jokes, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, full-blown beatings, broken teeth, head bashed open, strangled) DO understand.It is Ms. Shepherd-DuBey and Ms Kerr who do not!
They CHOOSE to focus on the words ‘Domestic Abuse’ to imply that the Council is not getting to grips with White Ribbon’s aims. Indeed Ms Kerr states that she wishes to be clear that ‘violence against women and girls is not the same as domestic abuse’. Isn’t it?
The words White Ribbon do not infer abuse. Domestic doesn’t infer Abuse so why would either be used.
Treating someone badly, cruelly, mentally, violently, sexually, physically, emotionally, unfairly, offensively (words), insultingly, in a way that is harmful, morally wrong, unjust and corrupt especially for his/her advantage or pleasure, in or out of school, the street, the home is ABUSE
The Council recognises abuse is a complex social problem which impacts everyone across society and since March 2021 has gathered together key statutory and voluntary organisations that help victims, survivors AND male and female perpetrators.
WBC has agreed a Wokingham Abuse Strategy recognising the important work of the Violence Against Women and Girls Agenda.
We have Cranston offering support for LGBT+ victims. We have the Wokingham Community Safety Partnership. WBC are working closely with the charity Kaleidoscopic UK. WBC are working closely with White Ribbon. All this work IS about getting men (women) to take responsibility.
Ms Shepherd-Dubey wishes the Council to prove the work is value for public money and WBC is determined not to waste further monies duplicating the huge amount of work that has already been done and is ongoing.
Not to burst anyone’s bubble but the work being done by all the above institutions is actually not ground-breaking.
As far back as 1983, when abuse forced itself into my life, I learned of programmes to help victims and perpetrators. I met and talked to Ray Wyre, now deceased, a pioneer in the treatment of offenders at the Gracewell Clinic. But thankfully, nearly 40 years on so much more has been learned, so much more is being done and offered, so much more is out in the open.
Wokingham Borough Council pledges to champion a culture of high standards by reporting abuse and supporting victims.
My children and I could certainly have done with this commitment all those years ago.
Abuse is abuse, and the work is the work, whatever title used.
Cllr Jackie Rance, Conservative councillor for Shinfield South, Wokingham Borough Council
Will male councillors commit to White Ribbon?
Thank you for printing the letters about the action needed over White Ribbon along with the difference between violence against women and domestic abuse, as well as your comment under THE VOICE OF THE BOROUGH.
I do hope that now people see the need for Wokingham Borough Council to have a domestic abuse strategy and join White Ribbon, they are different.
I am pleased to report I have now got abuse against Women on the English Churches Together Agenda and will be leading a seminar on the topic, we all need to understand the subject and make the commitment.
Having said that Louise Timlin asks if every male councillor could publicly take the White Ribbon promise to never commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women. I undertake to invite all male Councillors to commit to this promise and will be writing to the Mayor to ensure this.
Cllr David Hare, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Hawkedon
Social housing
In a Wokingham Today article published on June 5th 2021, the Legatum Institute declared that Wokingham is the most prosperous place to live in the UK.
In a Wokingham Today article on January 27th 2022, Cllr John Kaiser states there are 350 families living in overcrowded homes due to a huge demand for social housing.
In the article he is quoted as saying it is “unfortunate” that supply does not meet demand, adding “there is a limited number of council homes in the borough”
The 350 families will take, I am sure, enormous comfort from Cllr Kaiser’s sympathetic comments, but perhaps he could ask around the corridors of power to find out who is responsible for this lack of provision of council housing ?
In the article, he is quoted as saying that “vacancies are unpredictable”.
But if there are 350 families in need in need of social housing in January – and no more provision is made – it is entirely predictable there will be 350 families in need in February.
Roger Chalke, Wokimgham resident and reluctant council tax payer
On the BBC
I noted Mr Eyrley’s letter (WT 27/1/22) in support of the BBC. He makes a good argument. I just wish the BBC would keep its hands off me – or at least my wallet.
Currently I have to pay the BBC £159 per year even though I don’t want to view its output. I am lucky enough for this not to be a major imposition, however there are many in our society to whom £159 is a significant sum.
Lone parents, the unemployed, and those in debt and attempting to pay off loans – all must pay the regressive telly tax whether they use the BBC or not.
The licence fee thus acts as a protection racket imposed on the poorest in our land, and enforced, incredibly, by the criminal law. At the very least this Government should remove BBC licence fee enforcement from the criminal justice system: the Magistrates Association has long pleaded for this (their courts are clogged with licence fee cases).
The vast majority of those prosecuted are women, often single parents, financially vulnerable and trapped at home when the Capita enforcers call. And as 30% of all female criminal conviction are for licence fee “evasion”, the Government would see a dramatic fall in the crime rate.
Peter Lucey, Wokingham
A response from TV Licensing
This letter will be published in Wokingham.Today on February 10.
In response to the letter, “On the BBC” (06.02.2022), magistrates’ courts are not, as was claimed, clogged up with TV licence cases – these are mainly handled through the efficient single justice procedure and even before that was introduced cases only took-up just 0.3% of court time.
Indeed, John Bache, then National Chair of the Magistrate’s Association said in 2020, “removing TV licence cases from the courts would make a minimal difference. It is less than 1% of the time spent. So really it would be an insignificant difference. We would hardly notice it”.
More broadly, prosecution is always a last resort.
TV Licensing works with groups throughout the UK which support people who fall into financial difficulty, and we offer instalment plans to help people make regular payments.”
Pipa Doubtfire, Director of Revenue Management, TV Licensing
Cycling routes
I am pleased to see Wokingham Borough Council consulting on the new Woodley to Reading cycle route, as reported in Wokingham Today last week. This has the potential to make the short, under 20 minute, cycle between the 2 town centres significantly safer and more attractive.
One particular aspect of the proposed design seems to be causing concern with some local residents, and it will be important that these concerns are addressed to provide the best possible long term solution.
A small but vocal part of the community seem to want to oppose the scheme in all respects, seemingly unaware of the wider benefits that more people walking and cycling will bring to their community.
I encourage everyone who lives, shops or works in this area to consider a future with less congested roads, better air quality, fewer CO2 emissions and the freedom to walk and cycle without fear, and to respond to the consultation with this in mind, at: engage.wokingham.gov.uk/en-GB/projects/wokingham-borough-active-travel-fund-woodley-to-reading-active-travel-route
Adrian Betteridge, Wokingham
How High Quality will our Cycle Routes be?
When Wokingham Borough Council approved its own plans for the new South Wokingham Distributor road, we were assured that the provision of cycling infrastructure would be to a high standard, even if it failed to meet the nationally agreed standards. Indeed just last week when announcing the opening of the new rail bridge connecting in to Montague Park they re-iterated this ‘high quality’ intent.
Despite having a green field, blank canvass without constraints on which to build, local walking and cycling groups saw the ‘poor quality’ of the design and advised against it.
So it was no surprise on discovering that the first piece of the road to be opened, proudly displays ‘CYCLISTS DISMOUNT’ signs at its very first junction.
Advice on such signs has been clear since at least 2008 – they should be used only when no alternative exists – yet the SWDR designers have chosen to do so at the first opportunity. The 2008 guidance also says that ‘practitioners should be able to defend their decision’ [to use the sign] and explain why it cannot be avoided by design. Perhaps WBC would care to do so in this paper?
Al Neal, Earley
Burma Hills
I have received many contacts of concern from people living in Norreys who use the Burma Hills GP surgery.
It seems that Dr Jalisi has retired or moved to pastures new and, as yet, there has been no move by Wokingham Medical Centre (WMC) to place another GP at Burma Hills, instead patients are directed to Wokingham Medical Centre.
From many letters and articles in your paper, WMC is already under performance pressure, why send more patients to there?
Additionally, patients joined Burma Hills Surgery because it is local to them and those who can’t walk far can attend there plus it has a good reputation. WMC, is just too far for some.
I have in the past been registered at Burma Hills and know how important it is to the local community. My mother would have had to drag 3 children to the doctors if one of us was ill and without a car going to town it would have been horrendous.
It seems Burma Hills’ only use is as a vaccination centre, but that cannot continue.
There is a petition calling for Wokingham Borough Council to use whatever influence it can to get the local NHS organisations, including WMC to rethink this inaction and reinstate a GP service at Burma Hills for the sake of Norreys residents who have been left without a local service.
I ask people sign the petition at: www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-our-surgery
Cllr Daniel Hinton, leader of Conservative group on Wokingham Town Council
The secure unit
We are all agreed that Wokingham is a place where many people have done very well; they must have – to afford local property prices.
But even in up-market Wokingham, mental ill health can strike. I always use the following example – because it is so pertinent.
You had been doing very well, but your business went to the wall in the pandemic, your wife died of cancer, and your only son was killed in a skiing accident – all in the space of a year.
Due to such an unfortunate, and rapid, sequence of adverse events, you suffer a mental breakdown, but you are not stark, raving, mad, and you do not want to go to a mental institution.
This is where we kick in. You come to us for support, while you get your life back on track.
Just this week, one of our service users remarked, ‘This is a nice place; there should be more places like it.’ ‘People were saying that, 30ears ago’, I replied.
Indeed, she took me back 30ears to the occasion when a dangerous sex-offender had escaped over the wire of the Epsom Secure Unit, and had turned up, complete with suitcase, to stay in the crisis house.
I summoned the Secure Unit staff to take him back, and, over a cup of tea, they remarked, ‘This is a nice place; there should be more places like it.’ Indeed, there should! I explained to them. ‘You are the heavy end of mental health, and that is where funding from tax-payers, and high staffing levels are necessary, but we are the light end of mental health, where only community volunteers are needed’.
The mistake is to try to mix the two things together, and I do not exaggerate when I say that, in order to prevent our service from being, either colonised, or destroyed, I have, over the years, had to seek the intervention of local councillors, the local Member of Parliament, a local solicitor, the Local Authority Ombudsman, and the Police.
Had I caved in, and allowed us to be infiltrated, I doubt that the Crisis House would have lasted for 31 days – never mind for 31ears.
With Kind Regards – Pam Jenkinson – The Wokingham Crisis House.
