I was surprised by a voter yesterday complaining I did not experience the traffic jams he has sat in because “he did not see me around”! I explained I live in the Borough and sit in exactly the same jams as he does when I go to the shops or to the Conservative Wokingham office or to visit people with problems in the area.
I am walking or driving in the area most days, open to conversations and seeing for myself. I have been working with the Council on plans to improve junctions and the road system to cut congestion and make it easier for all of us to get around. Busting congestion so people can get to work or the shops or drop their children off more easily is one of my highest priorities for the area.
I have lived in the Borough for 34 years. My children attended local state schools. I would use the local NHS if I became ill. I have been in constant dialogue with local Councils about their provision of local services, have visited every new development and personally investigated local problems raised with me. I am a great believer in seeing for myself when intervening on a local matter.
I have held regular surgeries where people want to meet to talk me through a problem. I respond daily seven days a week to many emails and letters which keep me informed of issues and worries. I also run this website with regular local updates.
November 19, 2019
Did your local voter accept this or did he then find another reason to disagree with you?
Good to know you are out canvassing. We just get cliched leaflets.
Except for Labour who as you know are targeting the Prime Minister’s constituency. They always send some dishevelled crusties to convince me to give my money to others who need it more than me.
November 19, 2019
If only we had many more MPs of this calibre!
November 19, 2019
Some people are never happy .We see pictures of you around the town daily !
Jef McAllister the Foreign Correspondent on BBC Dateline last week stated that Boris was not going about enough and he was hiding away from the public !
While ,on social,media comments were being made about how wonderful to see Boris all about in the country daily and thinking he would get too tired at that pace .
Clearly FC have less news exposure than we do !
You are doing a great job and I feel,sure the residents of Wokingham can see that .
Best wishes
November 19, 2019
Sir,
You should come and visit us in Portsmouth in order to see how NOT to ‘manage’ traffic. As you will be aware, we are technically Britain’s only Island City (sea on three sides and the Creek to the north). There are only 3 routes on and off the island, usually with roadworks on at least one of them.
Our Liberal-Democrat council has
1) installed road humps where they are unnecessary.
2) installed 20mph speed limits in roads that are amply wide enough to permit two-way traffic.
3) replaced perfectly good working roundabouts with lighted junctions (if I remember correctly, with 71 sets of lights [yes, 71 !!!] replacing the ‘Marriott Hotel’ roundabout)
4) …then later narrowed many those junctions [presumably with the idea of minimising the width of road necessary for pedestrians to cross] and in so-doing has reduced 3-lanes to 2, restricted the space such that if either a driver or pedestrian makes an error, there is NO spare road-space in which a vehicle can move to avoid an accident.
5) Many of our remaining roundabouts (some on arterial routes in & out of the City) have had their width reduced from 3-lanes to 2, and in a few notable cases to only a single lane. There is ample road space for those removed lanes, and the smoking-gun that points to their folly, are the verges that (currently) have reduced vegetation height. This latter move has also taken away safe road-space on which emergency vehicles (or indeed drivers in difficulty) could pull into.
6) Traffic-light phasing is apallingly bad and flow only improves when the lights are out of action (something that all drivers – I am sure – have experienced for themselves!).
7) the city is now peppered with Residents’ Parking Zones which (in most instances) are better than 50% empty during the day, and only fill-up when the residents themselves get home from work. During the day, there is no need for them.
I would sincerely hope that Wokingham does not, and does not intend to, inflict these measures on their residents. They won’t be thankful for them.
Regards,
GW.
November 20, 2019
Take heart John, you are certainly appreciated by those of us who take an interest in local and country matters.
I’ve never known an MP to have worked as tirelessly and communicated with his constituents as regularly as yourself though you are bound to come across the occasional individual who has not been paying attention but will ignorantly go on the attack.
Keep up the good work and best of luck next month.