Leader: covid rates are ‘stubbornly high’

COVID rates are remaining “stubbornly high” according to the leader of the council.

Cllr John Halsall shared an update on the borough’s response to the pandemic at the start of the executive meeting, held on Thursday, July 29.

After a moment’s silence to remember those who had died as
a result of Covid-19, Cllr Halsall said: “the pandemic is far from over and the lifting of restrictions does not mean the risks from Covid have disappeared”.

He emphasised that the council had a duty of care to residents and wanted people to remain cautious, excerising their personal judgment to make choices that would protect people around them. As part of this, face coverings remain a must for people accessing council buildings, while one-way systems and good hand hygiene measures are still in place.

Similar protections are in place in schools, businesses and care homes, Cllr Halsall added. He was also looking to the future:

“We want to see people back out and about more.  It is good for the community and good for our local businesses. But it is not supportive to risk spreading the virus,” he said.

“Although hospital admissions remain low, this stage of the pandemic is critical because it is about learning to take personal responsibility and coming together as a community to cope with covid, while understanding that others will cope differently.”

He wanted residents to encourage everyone to have two doses of the vaccine.

“Please urge our minority groups to do so where there seems to be some vaccine hesitancy leading to health inequalities,” he said.

“As we learn to live with the virus, we will continue to manage the risks in front of us and put our residents at the heart of everything we do. So please be cautious, be careful and be kind.”

Renewed calls for citizen’s assembly

FORMER Labour group leader Andy Croy once again called on the borough council to hold a citizens assembly to help achieve the net carbon zero goal by 2030.

He said: “Leeds, Oxford and Camden Councils have all had successful Citizens’ Assemblies.  Why is this council going to such lengths to rig the appraisal on consultations rather than simply opt for the most democratically legitimate and effective form of local engagement – a Citizens’ Assembly on the Climate Emergency?”

Responding, Cllr Gregor Murray, the executive member for resident services, communications and emissions, said that the council recognised the importance of community engagement for tackling the climate emergency, and that other councils faced different issues so the same approach wouldn’t work in Wokingham.

“Local deliberative processes are a vital way of ensuring that gap is closed in a way that is palatable to our residents and to the needs of our climate emergency,” he said.

Mr Croy, who lost his seat in May’s local elections, said: “You keep mentioning that we cannot make residents do things.  The only way that we can get people to change their minds is by having a citizen’s assembly.  None of the other processes will allow that.  So, my question is why do you not trust the residents of Wokingham borough to have a proper say in this most important issue?”

Cllr Murray “fundamentally” disagreed and said he trusted residents so much he was prepared
to ask them specific questions relating to the climate emergency.

“If we did that as part of one massive climate citizen’s assembly,
it would only be a minor factor in the time and effort that that group
of citizens would be able
to consider.  They would have to look at a multitude of other things as well.  What I want to do is break up climate emergency into a multitude
of elements and do the most appropriate deliberative process for each element of it.”

Meat-free Mondays for school meals?

A CALL for schools to adopt meat-free Mondays and a daily vegan choice was made by resident Helen Palmer.

She wanted the executive to consider changing the contract with caterers, saying for many pupils a school lunch was their only solid meal of the day and needs to be nutritious and balanced.

“In the past it was believed that children needed regular meat to provide protein and iron, but research shows that lentils, beans and Quorn provide these and other nutrients in abundance and without saturated fat.  Therefore, I am asking for a healthier menu, not an impoverished one,” she said.

And she pointed out that meat had a big carbon footprint. By tweaking the menus, it would make a difference to the borough’s carbon reduction target.

Cllr Graham Howe, executive member for children’s services, agreed that it was important for school dinners to keep children sustained, but it was down to the schools to make the decisions over the menus presented to pupils.

“Schools do promote healthy dieting and now have much about climate control in their curriculums,” he said, promising to pass on her views to them. “Children today, like many other things, have a better awareness of these subjects than their parents and it is the children who will choose what they consume, hopefully healthily.”

Cllr Prue Bray (Lib Dem, Winnersh) asked a similar question, and also asked for the council to reduce food miles where possible.

Due to the way in which schools are run, councils can only make suggestions to them, Cllr Howe said in reply.

Later in the meeting, the council approved a procurement process for school meal provision and kitchen maintenance, which will come into force from August next year.

It would run until 2025, and could be extended for a further two years, at a cost of around £1.2 million per year.

This replaces the current three-year contract with Caterlink and the bidders must demonstrate they can reduce, reuse, recycle and recover waste in an appropriate way. The council will also be pushing companies to use local supply chains where possible.

Public health funerals

THERE has been just one public health funeral in Wokingham Borough within the past two years.

Cllr Rachel Bishop-Firth said she was surprised by this, and had had problems finding information on the council’s website towards this.

“I was very concerned that I could not find any clear statements about the council’s responsibilities and how the bereaved can get support.  This is likely to lead to our residents with the lowest incomes being unaware of help that they are entitled to, and it falls well short of the Government’s guidance to councils,” she said, calling on the council to update its information.

Cllr Charles Margetts, the executive member for health, welling and adult services, agreed with her, and said that Environmental Health handles assisted funerals.

“We establish contact with the informer to see if the deceased has any relatives and if no relatives are found the Council’s Environmental Health will ensure that the deceased gets a dignified exit from this world.  We are totally clear about that, and I am surprised that you have even asked this question,” he added.

Solar farm plans given approval

PLANS to convert pasture into a solar farm were approved by the executive meeting. It will cost £21 million and
be funded from borrowing.

It is expected to generate £12 million over 25 years once costs have been accounted for.

Wokingham Borough Council must approve the project as it is more than £15 million.

The farm will be in Barkham and is expected to be 36 mega watts. It will use solar panels on council-owned land and save more than 11,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

Planning permission is expected to be lodged in September During the discussion, Cllr Charles Margetts (Con, Finchampstead) expressed satisfaction that trees would be planted to help screen the site from California Country Park.

Earlier in the evening, Cllr Sarah Kerr (Lib Dem, Evendons) wanted to know why “prime agricultural land” was being used “against government advice”.

Cllr Murray said that this was not the case if special circumstances could be proven, and this could include “the wider environmental benefits associated with increased production of energy from renewable sources”.

He continued: “The council cannot hope to reach carbon neutral within 10 years without making some difficult decisions and implementing some significant interventions; including the delivery of four solar farms with the potential to generate in excess of 20MWP under target 12 of the Climate Emergency Action Plan.”

The meeting also approved planting 250,000 new trees, as part of the climate emergency action plan.

Surplus hopes

THE COUNCIL is hoping to end the current financial year with a surplus of £600,000 according to provisional estimates presented to the executive by Cllr John Kaiser.

And the group voted to approve £31,500 funding for Tone of Voice project which it hopes will improve the way the council interacts with residents.

Investing locally

FUTURE investments made by the council would be local thanks to a new Community Investment Strategy.

The change, approved by the executive, will ensure that property purchases will be within the borough.

During the meeting, Cllr John Kaiser, the deputy leader, said that the change in emphasis was because the Public Works loans Board had changed its criteria. This meant the council would only consider local investment, or in partnership with another body if it would benefit the borough.

Procurement change

A NEW procurement strategy was set up and approved by the executive.

This aims to follow best practice when the council buys in goods or services.

It will introduce a strategic procurement board charged with finding best value and quality when tendering contracts, monitoring the management
of the contracts and informing future policy making.

A secondary contract management support and learning working group will also be set up to provide support and guidance to contract managers, share best practice around contract management and draw on any lessons learned from procurements of major contracts.

Fit and proper test

A FIT and proper person must be appointed for each of the borough’s mobile home parks.

There are 19 such sites in the borough and it is proposed that there should be an annual test to improve the standard of management of mobile home sites.

New legislation meant that the assessments should be made by October 1.

The application fee is based on a two-hour set fee of £59 per hour.