Tilehurst Roads – Time to Spend Some Money

Over the last couple of months I have reported the poor state of some of our roads in Tilehurst, highlighting Park Lane, Armour Road and Tilehurst Road opposite Prospect Park. All have been badly affected by the severe weather of the last two winters. I did notice some patching along Tilehurst Road and Park Lane but nothing like enough to return those road surfaces to anything like normal.

Reading has very recently been given another £400,000 to spend on road repairs by the government in recognition of the problems caused by severe weather. I will be pushing to see some of this spent in Tilehurst.

Incidentally, the road surface on Mayfair is aslo broken up but only the shallow top asphalt layer, and not enough so council officers tell me, to warrent a major re-surfacing.

Reading’s Red/Green Mix

Well the Greens have now thrown in their lot with the Labour Party in Reading and although they have stopped short of a full coalition, they have now said that they will allow Labour to form a minority administration and run the council. In order to do this they will have to sit on their hands and abstain at Wednesday’s council meeting when the mayor is elected. With Labour on 22 councillors and the Lib Dems and Tories also mustering 22 councillors, the new mayor will be elected on the casting vote of the outgoing mayor, Labour’s Gul Khan, who will break convention and instead of voting in Tory Jenny Rynn (this year’s Deputy Mayor) will vote for a Labour nominee.

From that moment the council will be run by Labour who will continue to use the casting vote of their mayor whilst the Greens sit on their hands and abstain.

The Greens are about to find out that you do not have to vote with Labour in order to support them and that whatever the new council does from now on it will do with the tacit support of the Greens. I confidently expect the new administration to make very little impression on the £200m the council owes and that they will fail to meet the current budget which needs to find £19m of savings this current year in order to meet government targets.

It will be interesting to see if the Greens manage to gain any advantage for Park Ward residents out of their deal with Labour and if so what does that mean for Labour’s Cllr John Hartley, the last Labour councillor left in Park Ward.

For the Lib Dems it will be back to opposition on the council and campaigning on the streets again.

Green Quandary

Last weeks local election results in Reading left the parties in the following state:
Labour 22 seats
Tories 16 seats
Lib Dems 6 seats
Greens 2 seats

No party has an overall majority and the Greens have been left with a choice of propping up a Labour administration or joining a broad coalition with the Tories and Lib Dems.
They have been put in a very uncomfortable place as propping up a Labour administration will tie them into all the decisions that Labour make and there will need to be some tough ones if Reading is to keep within its budgets.

On the other hand the Lib Dem/Tory coalition that prised control of the council away from Labour last May after 23 years has already made many of the tough budget decisions (and also opened up some of Labour’s darker secrets like funding Labour (union) activists from tax-payers money) and has developed a reputation for competance that Labour has lacked over the last few years.

Returning Labour to power will not serve the Greens or the people of Reading who overwhelmingly still vote against Labour rather than for it. It is only our peculiar First Past the Post electoral system that kept them in power for so long.

Joining a coalition and taking part in Cabinet discussions and decisions means that the Greens could look to influence things rather than react to other peoples decisions. Of course this will tie them in to a coalition with other parties but one which actually has majority support from the popular vote cast in Reading.

Sadly Labour have no ideas when it comes to sharing power with anybody else. Their politics are still very tribal and they will only use the Greens to further Labour aims (which equate to hanging on to power as there is no ideology left in the Labour party) rather than work with them.

Getting elected may not have been easy for the Green councillors, but making key decisions over who to support in the council chamber may well prove to be very much harder.

Sadly, we lost – but thank you

Well although the election campaign was fought as hard as ever, and probably even harder judging by the blisters that appeared on my feet, the count on Friday morning was a huge disappointment as we lost our seat in Tilehurst, along with seats in Katesgrove and Redlands, leaving us with just 6 councillors in Reading.

We lost Tilehurst to the Tories by 200 votes and they were almost as surprised as we were at the result.

Can I take this opportunity of saying a big thank you to all our helpers in Tilehurst for contributing to a really tough campaign for us. In the end it appears that we lost the election on national issues rather than local concerns. It was a very sad day for my colleague Chris Harris who lost his council seat.

The job now is to pick ourselves up and get into gear for the next campaign.

Lights Going Out in The Meadway

Following a decision taken before Xmas, the traffic lights in The Meadway at the junction with Combe Road will be taken down next week (week beginning 7 March). They will not be missed and have been the cause of much havoc and confusion since they were installed. Following the Coalition Administration’s review of traffic lights these ones were found to serve no useful purpose and they will be removed, although a pedestrian crossing will remain.

The New Lead Councillor

Well on Tuesday night the Council approved the Coalition budget for 2011-12 and then also voted me in as the new Lead Councillor for Environment and Sustainability. I must admit I never thought I would ever take up such an exalted role when I went into politics, it was not normal for a Lib Dem to dream of power in the 1990’s. But here we are in 2011 and we find ourselves sharing power with the Tories and actually working with them to improve life for Reading residents after 23 years of Labour rule.

Anyway I now get to immerse myself in licensing and environmental protection alongside street cleaning and waste management. So its pretty much rubbish from here on in!

I hope I still find time to blog occasionally.

Labour has no shame

There is apparently no sense of shame or hypocrisy in Reading’s Labour Party. Today I read that Labour’s Transport Supremo Tony (IDR) Page said “It’s a matter of great concern to me and my colleagues that the administration is downgrading a long-established commitment to public transport and the importance of a third Thames bridge.” This is from the man who put the Third Thames Bridge at number 30 of a list of 30 projects in the TIF bid 18 months ago, meaning that it was kicked into the long grass depsite questions from myself about its priority. This man has no shame and a very select memory. His support for public transport does not apparently extend to providing a bus station at the heart of Reading’s bus network for the good folk of Reading which we will now do without for the foreseeable future.

Then we had a Council meeting last night where Labour proposed an amendment to  a report on Budget savings, asking the Administration to look at alternative ways of providing public services other than directly through the council. This, you will not be surprised to hear is exactly what the Administration has been doing since it was elected in May, looking for the most efficient ways to deliver services, minimising any potential cuts and ensuring continuity of service. It is of course difficult when faced with having to make savings of £19m in a total budget of £160m as a result of Labout mismanaging an economy, but the Administration decided to accept and support the amendment anyway. Then the Labour councillors, with a breathtaking show of hypocrisy voted against the amended report recommendations. The truth is they were trying to trap the Administration into voting against what, on the face of it, was  a sane amendment. We did not fall for that particular trick and Labour ended up with egg on their faces by voting against something they had just proposed. But the farce was there for all to see, no principles, no shame, just pure farce from Labour.

Update on Pincents Hill Development

I have now been notified by West Berks Council that a Public Enquiry is being held to look at this proposed development and to determine the appeal by Blue Living, the developers against a decision by West Berks to refuse planning permission.

This is another golden opportunity to tell Blue Living were to take their development and to restate the case for refusing permission.

The enquiry is being held over 6 days on 22-25 February and 1-2 March at Pincents Manor Hotel, Pincents Lane from 10:00 each morning. All sessions are open to the public.

Don’t Speed in Tilehurst !

Speedwatch in TilehurstWell it has been a while since I last posted but I think I need to get back into the groove.18 months ago I managed to get the council to purchase a number of mobile speed guns for use by the local neighbourhood police teams. They have been used with some success by local police in Tilehurst but over the last few months the delightfully named NAG (Neighbourhood Action Group  – a forum which brings together the local police team and local residents) has tken the initiative further. Under a dynamic new NAG Chairman, David Webber, local residents have been trained to use the guns and have been out on patrol, accompanied by PCSOs, on roads in Tilehurst. These ‘Speedwatch’ actions have been very popular with residents and many of them have come out to congratulate those volunteers who instead of suitting and moaning, have been enabled to take action against speeding motorists who are the bain of many people’s lives in Tilehurst.

The NAG is now offering to help any group of local residents who want to carry out a ’speedwatch’ action in their street  and similar speedwatch actions are slowly being taken up in other parts of Reading.

Before we bought the speed guns  there was no attempt to enforce speed limits in residential roads apart from occasional actions by traffic police a few times a year. Now residents feel empowered to act for themselves and I am happy to have been the one that provided the tools to let them do so.

Don’t speed in Tilehurst  –  you have been warned.

Car Park Charges Frozen

 Good news for Tilehurst residents !  Recreation Road and Dunstall Close car parks are having their charges frozen for another year following negotiations between the Council and NCP who run the car parks on their behalf. It means that Tilehurst shoppers can still park for free for one hour and do their shopping, it is only the second and subsequent hours that are charged.

Actually the car park charges are only enforced between 10:00 and 15:00 so outside these times you can park for free for as long as you want !