Once again the Wokingham Today paper shows us why it’s the voice of Wokingham by its excellent reporting on housing matters or which green fields to concrete over and which to not along with the dubious political thinking of those leading the charge.
Page 1 and 9 covers an exclusive story headed SHINFIELD AND ARBORFIELD TORIES OPPOSE HALL FARM. It is based on a circular put out by Wokingham’s Conservative Office and promoted by a Woodley Conservative Councillor.
It’s interesting the takes Labour and the Lib Dems make on this circular. Both suggest there is a split amongst the Conservatives but I think Labour are nearer the mark when they suggest the Conservatives are trying to hoodwink residents by trying to bolster waning electoral support for next May’s local elections where their days are numbered.
My view is that Labour have got it right. Understanding how the Conservatives Group works is key. Wokingham’s 31 Conservative Councillors are affiliated to 4 different Parliamentary constituencies, Reading East, Bracknell, Maidenhead and of course Wokingham. Their ruling Executive has a majority of 6 Wokingham Conservatives on it and half of the 31 Conservative Councillors represent Wokingham Wards.
For the Executive to approve a public consultation on whose green fields the cement mixers and tree felling takes place to accommodate housing all these Wokingham Conservatives would have had to approve it. Why did they not stop it when they had the power? It can only be a cynical recognition that next May’s local elections they will pay the price. Their solution is to pretend that they are against the Houses in the hopes it will save their duplicitous skins. I believe our residents are wise to this.
Page 6 has two articles one headed FRUSTRATION OVER LACK OF COMMUNITY FACILITIES AT ARBORFIELD GREEN. It covers residents disenchantment over promised community facilities and access to schools on sits. Promises broken again and again. No houses in Hurst or any Northern Parishes Conservative Councillor Wayne Smith (The architect of no houses in the north of the borough Local Housing Plan) commented that we know residents are upset.
On the same page no houses in Hurst or the Northern Parishes the same Councillor for Hurst Wayne Smith pleads NOT BUILDING ANY MORE HOMES IS A TERRIBLE IDEA when what he really meant was not building any more homes in Hurst and Remenham and the North of the Borough is a brilliant idea.
Page 33 is the final straw on an article headed COUNCIL MEETING WAS A TOXIC VICAR OF DIBLY EPISODE. The meeting was chaired by the Hurst Parish Council Chairman who is none other than the no houses in Hurst or the Northern Parishes Councillor for Hurst Wayne Smith.
Cllr Smith has been on record at a previous Parish Council meeting as saying he is against housing in Hurst so I think the campaigners against 15 houses there can rest easy in the beds.
With 97% of house building in the south of the borough over the last 10 years and only 3% in the north areas in the south that have escaped this time must not be smug as there time will come as long Conservative run Wokingham Borough Council.
Next May is the residents last chance to change that as once May passes by the damage will be done forever and cannot be undone as the cement mixers and chain saws will be residing on green field’s near you until 2040 and beyond but sleep easily in your bed if you live in Hurst or Remenham.
Cllr Gary Cowan, Independent Borough Councillor for Arborfield at Wokingham Borough Council.
Scafell Pike
Dear Matthew, I just couldn’t resist bragging that my Son Andrew has climbed the above mentioned twice, first time it was Ben Nevis then Scafell Pike then lastly Snowden all in one day.
I was so proud of him and I wish all those taking part good luck.
Janet Cook, Wokingham
Sir John — hands off the BBC
Is the licence fee really becoming more difficult to collect. And is the fee really being resented. And is support for the BBC really dropping ?
Isn’t the real reason for your attack – the Government does not like tough questions, and an attempt to change the subject as the Government is going through a difficult time.
I recall that similar criticism was levelled at the BBC by Labour when they were in power.
To weaken the BBC would damage its highly respected independent voice not only in the UK but in the world.
Gagging independent media is a tactic adopted by authoritarian regimes in the world – to the damage of democracy.
Keep the BBC and its funding wholly independent of Government and let us support a service that is rightly the envy of the world.
Dennis Eyriey, Wokingham
The difference in violence and abuse
I want to clear something up. Violence against women and girls is not the same as domestic abuse.
White Ribbon is a charity that engages with men and boys to lead the cultural change to end violence against women and girls. White Ribbon is about ending all the unpleasant, upsetting and scary things that happen to women and girls day in, day out. White Ribbon is focused on getting men to take responsibility for helping to bring about the cultural change that’s needed, because it is from men that most of the violence against women and girls comes.
This is about sexting in schools, wolf whistles in the street, hands up skirts, rubbing up against you on the tube, inappropriate comments about how we look, sexist jokes etc. We are afraid to go about seemingly normal activities due to the fear of assault, rape or murder. Women are repeatedly objectified, and our bodies hypersexualised which has contributed to harmful gender stereotypes that often trivializes violence against us.
Put simply, men who kill women do not suddenly kill women. They work up to it. There is a direct correlation between the normalised objectification of women and girls and the harassment and violence we are subjected to. We want this to stop.
And yet society blames women for what we are subjected to. Maybe we were dressed inappropriately? Maybe we should have taken a different route home? Maybe we shouldn’t have left our drink unattended? Stop victim blaming us. The attention needs to be on the perpetrators and how we can prevent this from happening in the first place.
Everything I am talking about is not happening in domestic settings. This is not domestic abuse. The murders of Sarah Everard and Ashling Murphy were not domestic abuse incidents.
This leads me to ask why, when we’re requesting that the council takes accountability for trying to effect a wider cultural change, do they feel that they have no responsibility to do this? I do not believe that Conservative councillors wish for women and girls to be treated badly. I do think they haven’t thought this through though.
Under the title of White Ribbon, we were presented in full council with a set of recommendations that focused on domestic abuse and not about ending the epidemic of violence against women and girls.
A key line in the report stated that “it has been highlighted that the foundation of the work undertaken by the White Ribbon organisation work focuses on helping organisations that are at a starting point with changing their culture around domestic abuse.” This is factually incorrect as outlined above.
I am fully supportive of the work the council is undertaking in relation to tackling domestic abuse and was proud to second the anti-abuse charter report in the same meeting. That’s not what we’re talking about here though.
White Ribbon UK works with organisations to effectively do a gap analysis of things it could be doing to tackle violence against women and girls. They help ascertain what organisations are already doing well and advise on what else organisations could do in creating cultural change. There is no duplication of work. They are external, independent experts who effectively audit an organisation, and if an organisation is doing well, they receive an accreditation. And if there’s work still to do, they give advice on this.
The Conservatives claim the council are engaging with White Ribbon UK. The obvious question therefore is, if the council is engaging with White Ribbon anyway, why does it not want the accreditation which would assure the public that it’s being effective?
I can only conclude that it doesn’t want to do the work to become accredited and therefore that means it does not feel they have a responsibility to effect wider cultural change when it comes to ending the epidemic of violence against women and girls. I do hope I’m wrong.
Cllr Sarah Kerr, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Evendons Ward
Ukraine
Dear Mr Sunderland, you were an army man of high rank so you must feel as I do that Europe and Britain with France and other European countries must stop Russia invading Ukraine.
The Russians have always been bullies for many centuries from white Russia to red we must stand up to these bullies it also seems that US have a lame duck President the same as the Labour leader in Britain.
Bullies must be stopped in the world.
Please speak in Parliament on what I wrote. I have learnt about these people over the years.
Victor Rones, Bracknell
White Ribbon
I was very disappointed to hear Cllr Laura Blumenthal’s comments at last Thursday’s Wokingham Borough Council meeting.
She assumed that all members of the working group were in agreement with the Conservative views on the White Ribbon motion?
I am a Liberal Democrat member of the Equalities Working Group and I thought I had made my views on the White Ribbon Accreditation very clear.
The White ribbon movement is about giving men and boys the confidence to speak up and call out others when they exhibit lewd and abusive behaviour towards women.
The accreditation would require the council to be audited externally by the White Ribbon movement and would give the public confidence that Wokingham is doing all it can to give men the support to stop unacceptable behaviour from escalating.
Instead, I was told that they were doing this work as part of their domestic abuse policies and did not want to put in a lot of work and spend the money on accreditation.
Well, it is not a lot of money and if it is really a lot of work, then I want to know what are they NOT doing? If it is not a lot of work, then why wouldn’t you want to prove the good work that is being carried out with public money?
Cllr Imogen Shepherd-DuBey, leader of Wokingham Town Council and Liberal Democrat councillor for Emmbrook
Hall Farm
Your long article in last week’s paper about the schism in the Wokingham Conservatives prompted by the Hall Farm proposals was very welcome. There is no question but that this is locally unpopular.
People quite rightly believe that there is a long term Conservative policy of loading as much as possible of the borough’s housing quota onto the south and west of the borough to protect the north and east.
The Conservatives have circulated leaflets (so far as I can discover) in two wards only – Shinfield South and Arborfield — urging people to write in against the proposal.
A Mr Edmonds, who is plainly positioning himself as a candidate in the May elections, published a statement on Facebook declaring his opposition to the Hall Farm proposals and calling in support Councillor Rance.
He made the disingenuous argument that the return of Conservative candidates would enable them to argue against the majority view of the Conservative Group and so overturn the Hall Farm proposals.
The question, which I have put to Cllr Halsall in an open letter to which he has not replied, is whether the Arborfield and Shinfield South Conservative councillors will be allowed to vote against an important element in their own party’s Local Plan Update or whether they will be expected to lend it their support, no matter what they have said locally.
Your help in securing a clarification on this important point would be most welcome. Only when we know can we assess the honesty of the Conservatives who, so far as I can see, are saying different things in different wards.
Richard Hoyle, Spencers Wood
