WOKINGHAM’S forum set up for black and minority ethnic residents has not been disbanded, it’s just not meeting at the moment.

At the executive committee meeting of Wokingham Borough Council held on Thursday, July 29, three people asked council leader John Halsall questions about the council’s progress on equality, a year after he had mistakenly linked the Forbury Gardens terrorist attack with a Black Lives Matter protest earlier in the day. At the time, Cllr Halsall apologised and had since met with various parties to strengthen community relations.

Liz Mayers said that she was one of 76 Wokingham residents who made a complaint about these comments, which Cllr Halsall made on social media.

“The complaint was first mislaid, then mixed up with other similar individual complaints and generally mishandled,” she said.

Cllr Halsall said that he disagreed, and the complaint had been dealt with appropriately.

“I apologised publicly for any upset I had caused and sought to clarify my position.  Personal letters were also sent to residents who had complained through the Member Code of Conduct process,” he said, adding that he had worked with residents, officers and members to educate himself on how the council can improve its approach to equalities.

“My focus is to help create the architecture and culture within council and borough to make more meaningful progress in tackling inequality,” he said.

Part of this was March’s presentation of the equalities plan and this was not a “hollow commitment to tick a box”, but was backed up with an action plan.

“Diversity, equality and addressing need must be part of everything we do and the example we set. No rational person would take any other point of view and no responsible person would play politics with this issue,” he said.

“Every one of our residents must be free to live the life they wish and flourish in our borough and I want to help ensure Wokingham Borough Council champions this.”

Responding, Ms Mayers said the although she was invited to join the BAME forum “It was immediately suspended”. “Why have we been ignored?” she added.

“If the officers have sent you a commitment to get engaged with you then I am sure they will,” was Cllr Halsall’s response.

Kiran Nar asked a similar question about the ‘disbanding’ of the BAME forum, saying there was no team leading equality initiatives and “there has been no real commitment to understand the lives and experience of the non-white population of Wokingham”.

“What are you really doing to foster good community relationships and eliminate racism in the borough?” he asked.

Cllr Halsall replied by saying: “Why the overt concentration on the non-white community? The borough is interested in any of its residents who suffer prejudice or harm, with a view to mitigating, eliminating and repairing the prejudice or harm.

“I have spent much of my life engaged in sport, both doing it and coaching. I feel genuinely sorry for sportsmen and women who do not do as well as they might but, hey ho, we did get to the final of the Euros which is quite an achievement. 

“We need to celebrate the positives and not dwell on the negatives. Well done the England football team, all of them.”

He emphasised the council’s equality strategy and said that it had appointed an interim equality lead officer “who had a raft of expertise”, and an indpendent review of the BAME forum would be complete by the end of the year.

“A key piece of early feedback from the consultants has been the broad ambition for the BME Forum being more independent and self-sustaining in the future, which will be factored into our planning,” he said.

He concluded by telling Mr Nar: “People shouldn’t wait for us to reach out if they have something to share with us that can improve equality for the residents in our borough.  I would ask that they can get in touch with us so we can listen to them.”

Keith Kerr wanted to know what contacts Cllr Halsall had with the black community in a bid to end discrimination.

Cllr Halsall said that some of the work had been curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic and urged Mr Kerr and others to encourage people from an ethnic minority background to “have a 100% vaccination rate, a task which eludes us all”.

Mr Kerr said that Cllr Halsall’s answer was “a long list of words and promises” and wanted to know “what more can we do to get the council to take its knees off our collective necks?”

Cllr Halsall again urged for help on vaccinations and also appealed for support for the relaunching of the BAME forum.

“(It) is not the property of the borough it is the property of the BME Forum and we would like to have it up and running; hopefully as soon as we can physically start meeting in the later half of the year.”

After the meeting, Cllr Halsall re-emphasised his determination to getting the forum back in action as soon as the review had been completed.

“The council is committed to engagement with the community where this is helpful to them,” he told Wokingham.Today. “The BAME forum has not therefore been disbanded but in September last year the activities of the Forum were paused (to) consider issues which the group identified as important and this work is being progressed through a comprehensive review of its purpose and objectives. The lack of external visibility does not imply inactivity.

“The council is keen to support the continuation of ways to provide a voice for ethnic minority residents, and as outlined within the recently published Equalities plan and has commissioned an external review of the BME Forum, which is ongoing. There is no intention of discontinuing this initiative.”

The review has included one-to-one interviews and focus groups, and is expected to be completed soon.

The finds would be shared with the forum and stakeholders to assist in future steps.

“We are fully committed to engaging with residents but we know we don’t always get that right and it is something we are keen to improve,” he added. “We will soon be launching a new engagement platform which will enable residents to play a much more active role in shaping our services and performance.”

The leader of Wokingham Labour, Cllr Rachel Burgess, called on the forum’s acting chair, Cllr Parry Batth, to take action, saying the ‘confusion’ over its status was ‘at his door’.

“We have the bizarre situation where Forum members think it has been disbanded, but the council is saying it is merely suspended,” she said. “At the same time the Forum is independent of WBC and yet WBC is saying the Forum won’t meet until after the WBC-sponsored consultation is finished – whenever that will be.

“It is a mess. It looks like a deliberate policy of kicking the issue into the long grass; this has worked so well that there is a real danger it will not reconvene.

 “I urge Cllr Batth, as vice chair, to show some leadership and reconvene the Forum immediately so as to reassure members and to bring members up-to-date.

“The need of BME residents to have a strong voice has never been greater and WBC is preventing this from happening.”

She was also concerned at Cllr Halsall’s response to Mr Nar’s question: “The leader’s response showed how ill-suited he is for any position of responsibility in 21st century Britain.

“If a resident asks you about racism you answer the question on racism – you do not diminish their request by questioning the focus. It was an appalling thing to say.”

Cllr Clive Jones, deputy leader of Wokingham Liberal Democrats, was similarly concerned.

“If you listen to residents asking questions, the BAME forum has completely stalled, it isn’t happening and we want to know why it isn’t,” he said.