WOKINGHAM’S Labour group has entitled its manifesto as offering a sustainable future for the borough.
Divided into six sections, it covers a range of issues including education, roads, equality, and sustainability.
Under education, the party says that the pandemic has shown that teachers, teaching assistants and other school staff are ‘the bedrock of society’.
It wants to ringfence SEN funding, end private consultations for education health care plans, and support a national policy of giving power back to local authorities on setting up new schools.
The party is also pledging to support earlier intervention on mental health issues for children.
It would seek to restore Sure Start centres and boost out-of-school activities such as youth clubs.
On planning and development, Wokingham Labour says it will oppose national government attempts to impose unwanted developments, ensure the local plan meets ‘the highest possible standards’, and build more council homes.
Where developments are in progress, the party says a Labour-run council would push for infrastructure and public transport routes to be established before further building work can take place.
The environment would be protected, the party says, by ensuring new builds are net zero carbon by 2030, while residents would live, where possible, no more than five minutes away from a green space.
And the party would oppose turning offices into residential homes, saying ‘a converted office block on an industrial estate is a poor quality environment and no place to raise a family’.
Under communities, the party says it would aim to boost town and village centres to provide ‘experiences and facilities’ for all demographic groups, in the process making them ‘not just somewhere to shop, but somewhere people want to come to meet others, share experiences, and enjoy culture’.
It also wants to boost council-run consultations to make sure all residents’ voices are heard, take a pedestrian-first approach to town centres, and fight to protect residents against bad businesses.
The party wants to explore setting up what it says would be ‘one-stop shops’ hat would fuse a community cafe with exhibitions, a repair shop, library facilities and signposting to essential services.
On transport, the party would look to create pedestrian-first routes, step-free routes for wheelchairs and pushchairs, explore pedestrianisation of Wokingham’s town centre, and push for 20mph zones in residential streets where residents demand it.
The party would support free bus travel for under 25s, electrification of the railway line between Reading to Basingstoke, and the Reading to Gatwick lines.
For the Finchampstead Road, it would look at ways to create a relief road between Sandhurst Road and the Southern Distributor Road.
Taxi licences would only be granted for electric vehicles, with a move to switch completely by 2030.
For equality the party plans to immediately seek White Ribbon accreditation – the campaign designed to end male violence against women – and relaunch the BME forum.
The manifesto states: “Equality and justice are fundamental values held by all Labour councillors.”
The party is seeking to boost the council’s climate emergency response in the final section of its manifesto, reiterating its commitment to a citizens assembly on steps to make the borough carbon neutral by 2030.
Its manifesto makes a pledge to implement the recommendations, saying it cannot be a talking shop.
There would also be a commitment to opposing a third Heathrow runway, and divest the council’s investments away from fossil fuel exploitation .
