Prue Bray

Wokingham Borough Council has its next full council meeting on January 19th.  Bearing in mind that the most recent one was in mid-November, that the next one in February only deals with the budget, and the next one isn’t until May, you might think that the ruling Conservatives might have a few things to put forward.  But no.

Lib Dem councillors have tabled 6 questions – on things like not using premium rate phone numbers for public services, recycling, and the Wokingham town centre redevelopment (we are only allowed one each, by the way).   Conservatives councillors have tabled a grand total of:  zero questions.

Lib Dem councillors have also tabled 3 items for debate.  We are calling for:

-  consultation with residents over the council budget

-  reinstating public toilets

- rethinking the proposed green waste scheme (which sees £60 a year or £1 a bag charges being introduced from April, with no concessions).

Conservative councillors have tabled:  zero.

I would love to know why the Conservatives have not put in any questions or motions.  Did they miss the deadline?  Or are they just not interested?

The Leader of Reading Borough Council has confirmed Council Tax will not go up in Reading in April:   http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/reading/articles/2011/11/14/55323-reading-set-for-council-tax-freeze/    I looked on their website to see what they are doing about consulting on next year’s budget, but to be quite honest, since it changed it is virtually unusable.  No idea how you are supposed to find anything!

Bracknell Forest’s budget consultation says Council Tax will not go up in Bracknell either:  http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/your-council/yc-budget-consultation-2012-to-2013.htm

West Berkshire aren’t saying – but they have been running an extended consultation on their budget strategy, with an explanation of where the pressures are:  http://www.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=24336

And Wokingham?   Not a dicky bird on the website about consultation on the budget, or about whether the council intends to freeze Council Tax.  

Is this a surprise?  Not really.   Most councils consult widely on their budget, with the public, and through discussion in council committees.  In a lot of areas, the detailed proposals, including what’s happening to Council Tax,  are routinely published well in advance.  For example,  Brighton & Hove announced what their intentions were over a month ago:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-15987925

But the Conservatives in Wokingham keep everything to themselves until they have to (by law) publish the papers the week before the budget meeting in February.   Not only do the public have no idea what’s going on, opposition councillors are deliberately kept in the dark.  We then get one week to try to make sense of hundreds of pages of information, and to ferret out the details and the implications.  Why?  I can only imagine that the Tories want to minimise the risk of challenge.  Which suggests they believe they might come unstuck if such challenges were made – and in fact, that is what happens!    That’s no way to run a council.   Much better to work things through thoroughly with the challenges coming early on, so that if they reveal a genuine problem or weakness it can be addressed.   We’re supposed to be elected to serve the residents of the borough, not just to play party political advantage.

… and a very Happy New Year

This post is to give residents of Winnersh advance warning of roads being dug up in the first 3 months of 2012. 

Scottish & Southern Energy are due to complete all their works around Watmore Lane and Maidensfield by mid-January.  Their major works affecting Reading Road start on 2nd April.

Starting mid-February Southern Gas Networks are going to be working in:  Wedderburn Close, Sherwood Road, Annesley Gardens, Danywern Drive and Reynards Close.   They are then moving on to Harefield Close and Deerhurst Avenue.

Wokingham Borough Council will be working in Reading Road over the next few months replacing some lamp posts, and will also be doing some minor works to the bridge over the A329(M) in Robin Hood Lane.

This is National Empty Homes week.

It is scandalous that we have so many people waiting for housing – and so many new houses being built, often against the wishes of the community – but according to the latest statistics in England there are 300,000 homes that have been empty more than 6 months – over 3,000 of those in Berkshire.   439 of those are in Wokingham Borough.  That’s roughly how many houses are going to be built at Hatch Farm Dairies.

A very small number of them are council owned or housing association.  The majority are privately owned.   Often the reason they are empty is that they need repairs and the owner can’t – or won’t – do them.   

Councils have the ability to get these properties back into use.   They should use the powers they have.   

You can read about National Empty Homes week here:  http://www.emptyhomes.com/    The site also tells you how you can report an empty property, as well as other simple things you can do to help the campaign to turn these empty properties into homes.

Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined a £1 billion pound Youth Contract to tackle youth unemployment. The aim is to ensure that all jobless young people are earning or learning again before long-term damage is done.

• Over three years, the Youth Contract will provide at least 410,000 new work places for 18 to 24 year olds into work. Starting April 2012
• Including 160,000 wage subsidies and 250,000 new work experience placements.
• In addition, there will be at least 20,000 more incentive payments to encourage employers to take on young apprentices.
• A new programme to help the most disengaged 16 and 17 year olds – getting them back to school or college, onto an apprenticeship or into a job with training.

… with the Leader of the Council.  Who had been aggressive and rude about a legitimate question put to the Executive by a Liberal Democrat councillor.  A Lib Dem who was attempting to ask a question but was being harangued to such an extent that he wasn’t being allowed to ask it.

What was his question about?  What upset the Tories?  Probably that he was questioning whether the Executive were absolutely certain to give Bulmershe the whole £6 million extra investment that was trailed in the report in front of them.  The reason being that Bulmershe has needed that investment for years, but the Tories have failed to come forward with it.  And that they announced in their election literature last May that it was as good as a done deal – when we knew that at the time there was no £6 million put aside.   

Even now, the actual money is still a few months off.  Nothing can formally be agreed until the Council budget meeting in February, with the earliest handover date being the start of the next financial year in April.

At least tonight showed one thing: the vehemence with which the Executive insisted the project was going ahead means it is impossible for them not to provide the money!

Yes I shouted out from the audience.  Yes I am not proud of myself.  My frustration at their bullying  behaviour boiled over.    I will try harder to keep my temper in future.

Last week there was an opportunity for parents and local residents to have a first look at what Winnersh Primary School’s expansion plans might look like.

The council intends to increase the school intake, so that eventually it will have 1 1/2 times the pupils it currently does.   It is one of three schools they have identified for expansion, to meet the potential shortfall in primary school places that they are predicting.    The last two years have seen difficulties over primary school places due to more children coming through than expected and this trend seems to be set to continue.

There are both advantages and disadvantages for the school.

On the plus side, they would get some new buildings and more flexible space, which should provide a better teaching environment and also give them enough room to have more activities before and after school.

On the down side, some parents have concerns about the size of the school, which would then be at about 600 pupils.  But my main worry – and the main worry that I picked up while I was at the event – was about the traffic and parking.  Both are already horrendous, and adding more children could make them much much worse.

It seems as though the expansion is going to happen.  So I will be concentrating on trying to get as much done as possible to help with both traffic and parking.   I have already put in a list of possible options for spreading the parking around, and reducing the number of car journeys.  The Winnersh NAG and our local PCSO are also on the case.  The school will have to have a decent travel plan when the planning application for the new buildings is considered, so we have a chance to get some sensible measures.  To be fair, the school and Children’s Services are both keen to try to fix the problems, and Highways are working on it too.

And finally, one of the proposals is to put in the pedestrian crossing on Robin Hood Lane near Arbor Lane that Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey ran a petition on, a petition which she presented to the council in September. 

If you have any suggestions yourselves, send them to me.  You can leave them as comments here or tweet them to @PrueBray.

I’ve just got back after speaking at the Planning committee on the Hatch Farm Dairies application.

The committee approved it.  Not a surprise, but disappointing none the less.

However, in the four weeks it was deferred we did get somewhere.  The developers have agreed to fund some extra pedestrian crossings.  And the council appears to have finally got its act together and is putting a business case together with a view to getting approval for the full go-ahead for their half of the  relief road in February.

Going to have a consolatory cup of tea now!

I thought you might be interested in finding out which sites in Winnersh Wokingham Borough Council intends to sell for development.

The list of “Estimated Capital Receipts” for the whole Borough was published in the agenda for the Executive meeting of 27th October 2011, on p 121.  You can find the agenda here: http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/council/minutes-agendas/agenda-and-minutes/2011meetings/

In Winnersh and Sindlesham the sites are:

- Sindlesham School (phase 2)    Sindlesham School used be where Wheatsheaf Close now is, on Mole Road as you leave Sindlesham for Arborfield.  The Council still owns a small part of the school site, having sold the rest for the development of Wheatsheaf Close.  The Council expects to receive £500,000 for the site in 2013/14.

- Bearwood Primary School    If the planning application to put 400 houses at Hatch Farm Dairies goes ahead (and it is up for decision on 16th November), the developer and the Council will jointly provide a new primary school on that site, which is off King Street Lane near the motorway bridge.  The current Bearwood Primary School will then no longer be required.  Part of the building is Grade II listed, and it is within the Sindlesham Conservation Area.  Both of those things restrict the sort of development which can be put on the site.  The Council expects to receive £750,000 for the site in 2014/15.

- Grounds Maintenance Unit    This is the land on the left as you drive into Woodward Close (Winnersh Farm).  The Council has made a number of attempts to sell it for development in the past, but it is blighted by noise from the M4, which severely restricts what can be put on it.  The Council would still like to sell it for development, but have not set a date or estimated a price.

-Winnersh Farm     This is the land around the British Legion.  The Council is putting it forward for a large amount of housing development – yet the site is affected by flooding, motorway noise, and poor access points, as well as being outside the development limits.  Nevertheless, the Council expects to sell it for £2 million in 2014/15.

Now we all know the Council is short of money and I think we can all understand the need for the Council to make the best use of its assets.  So, for example, if there is a new primary school, a small amount of development on the current Bearwood Primary School site could be made to be acceptable, especially if the proceeds were going to be reinvested in education.  

But the idea of making money by putting several hundred houses around the British Legion – on a site that in my view would not meet the Council’s own criteria for allowing development – is a whole different kettle of fish. 

The Council has printed this table and the Executive accepted it on 27th November.  So this must be what they are intending to try and do.  But at the same time, the Council is part way through the process of deciding which sites across the Borough are suitable for housing development between now and 2026.  All four of these sites have been put forward for assessment as part of that process.  I think it looks very bad to publish a table of sites the Council expects to sell for development while the process of assessing their suitability for development is still going on.

I have already commented on all the sites in Winnersh, and objected very strongly to the Winnersh Farm proposal.    The public will have a chance to comment on the sites at a later stage – originally this was going to happen before the end of 2011.  I have now heard that it has been put back to February 2012.   

I would not expect Winnersh Farm to pass the development tests and so it should be rejected for development.  I will be watching like a hawk to make sure the prospect of making £2 million does not influence the decision in any way.