Have these MPs no shame?

I see that our MP voted in favour of Paterson being found “not guilty” of corrupt behaviour. Nearly all of the 2,600+ comments (so far on November 3) on The Times website are utterly vitriolic, on the lines of “MPs vote to exonerate a corrupt colleague, and to change the rules, after discovering that the current rules expose and punish corrupt conduct”. Has he, and have fellow members, no shame – at all?

Michael Storey, Wokingham

Jam today, choice tomorrow?

Neil Coupe, in his quest for jam for his breakfast toast (Wokingham Today November 4) should remember the advice of the Dairymaid in A.A. Milne’s children poem, The King’s Breakfast that “…marmalade is tasty if it’s very thickly spread’.

And his dilemma about being spoilt for choice by the confusing plethora of brands offered by the big supermarkets might be resolved if he tried a Lidl one.

There they apply the Henry Ford approach to choice – you can have any brand you like as long as it’s ours.

The jam is exceedingly good. So is the marmalade.

Ray Little, Finchampstead

On the SEND school need

Last week you reported on the joint letter sent by Reading East MP Matt Rodda (Labour) and Maidenhead MP Teresa May (Conservative) to the Department for Education regarding the delay in the opening of the Oak Tree Academy School.

The school is a joint project between Reading Borough Council and Wokingham Council that will provide 150 school places for young people with Special Educational

Needs (mainly helping those with

autism spectrum condition) in Winnersh.

This project demonstrated different local authorities and different parties can work together successfully to provide much needed facilities for their local communities. But more importantly, it will provide specialist and much needed resources that ensure our young people with SEND get the best possible education available, closer to home and closer to their friends and families.

Sadly, as reported last week, the

DfE (who are managing this project) have announced the opening of the school will now be delayed.

This will leave both local authorities to foot a huge financial bill for the next 10 years (as pupils will be in more expensive placements further away) and leave many families and young people wondering where they will be able to access the facilities and education they need and deserve.

I have spoken with my Conservative colleagues in Wokingham and as MP’s Rodda and

May have also shown there is cross party and cross authority support on this, we need this school to open as soon as possible and I urge the DfE to do all they can to ensure that this happens.

Cllr Ashley Pearce (Labour), lead councillor for education at

Reading Borough Council

Supermarket sweep

Driving back from the Supermarket last Saturday with my groceries and my copy of Wokingham Today,

was caught in a very lengthy delay caused by three way traffic lights at the Bearwood/Barkham road miniroundabout.

With a lack or diversion signs it caused considerable chaos and a very lengthy delay for several hundreds of cars.

Closing roads to meet the needs of their developer mates and to hell with residents seems to be the mantra of Wokingham’s Conservative run council.

Eventually arriving home, a cuppa in hand I turned my attention to the paper.

Page 1 set the scene. Motorists will face three days of misery but who cares when residents are just minions it would seem. Something I have been objecting to for years now to no avail as the game is developers first and residents last.

Moving to page 3, Council challenges NHS to improve access to GP’s. Where was that headline when the NHS pulled the plug on a new doctors surgery agreed by the Council at the 3,500 houses at Arborfield Garrison?

It’s just a PR stunt with no substance as Arborfield Garrison shows Wokingham’s Conservative run council do not care.

What hope for future large scale development as the Council agree to everything, then just bend/break the rules to suit the themselves and to hell with the residents.

Page 6. Three MPs urge the Department for Education not to delay the Special Need School (SEND) approved by a Motorway in Winnersh.

This is a SEND school by a noisy polluting Motorway, which I objected to with no noise/pollution site monitors rejected by Planning Officers does not seem to be the best location when the closed rural Farley Hill Primary School is available.

Page 7: Flood stops children from playing outside yet tomorrow at an extraordinary Executive Wokingham’s Ruling Conservatives executive support a consultation with the key driver is 4,500+ houses in the countryside on the banks of the Loddon River (Flood Plain edge) stretching from Arborfield to Winnersh. The location is also below a threatening dam at Bearwood lakes. Madness when, with climate emergency upon us, as death and destruction in Germany and other parts of Europe has recently shown us.

Page 9 The Council’s Labour Leader criticises the Borough Council over its biodiversity claims but the Executive Member for highways ignores biodiversity and concentrates on the fact that it will play a crucial role in helping traffic move smoothly across Wokingham Borough. Biodiversity kicked into the long grass it would seem.

Page 34 Letters. From Tom Ross. He asks is the Conservative Council Leader backing away from Climate Emergency on cost but why will the Council Leader not reveal the real cost?

Tom also mentions that the Labour Councillors supported by every Councillor in Wokingham except the Conservatives support a Citizens Assembly to guide the Council on Climate Emergency which sadly will never happen. Why?

Simple really. Wokingham’s Conservatives see democracy as the preserve of the Leader and the ruling executive and they don’t even consider their own members in their interpretation of democracy.

Backbench Conservatives are just lobby fodder to be browbeaten/ bullied and kept in line. Residents play no part in Wokingham’s Conservative idea of democracy except at election time. A point to note.

Finally Page 35 From the Chamber: Cllr Sarah Kerr talks of Climate Emergency (or lack of) both nationally and locally.

A key point mentioned is that insulation homes has fallen off the radar.

I assume she means by that we all freeze to death or have to wear extra jumpers or pollute by using more energy to stay warm while our Conservative Councillors are all snug as a bug in their warm, insulated houses.

Why is this Conservative-run Wokingham Borough not developing powerful environmental policies for insulating our current/future residents homes? We all suffer.

With climate emergency getting out of control in many more ways as our new local housing plan evolves the opportunity is there now.

Sadly, I predict it will be a lost opportunity in so many ways.

Deliberate on going planning to continue polluting our roads, cutting down all our trees, and concreting over our green fields but not a house in Hurst or Remenham etc. without a real thought to Climate Emergency is the way of the Conservatives.

I hope our residents remember this next May.

Cllr. Gary Cowan. Independent

Borough Councillor for Arborfield at Wokingham

Borough Council.