Category Archives: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

The government has confirmed to me additional money of £3,426,328 for Wokingham Borough in 2015-16. This money is to assist the Council with the additional costs coming from new homes, and as a reward for identifying sites for them.

I am pleased to report that following discussions between myself, the Conservative Council, the public and the Post Office, there is now firm agreement to open a new Post Office at Maiden Place on March 11th. There will be longer opening hours, with the Post Office alongside the rest of the shop (Petfayre). I reproduce […]

I have now had an answer from government to my requests for better noise reduction measures on the M4 to protect constituents close to the motorway. I have been seeking noise reducing surface materials when the motorway is resurfaced, and more sound barrier.   “DEFRA identified seven important areas (noise hot spots) between junction 10 […]

The government has agreed finance for the new Arborfield secondary school as part of the second Thames Valley Growth deal. Money will also be made available for additional superfast broadband provision, and for extra projects to assist in teaching science and technology based courses. I have worked with the Minister, Greg Clark who handles the […]

Today’s employment and unemployment figures show further improvement in Wokingham. Last month there were 356 people on Jobseekers Allowance, down by 184 on a year earlier and down by 10 on November. Wokingham is the 11th best constituency for low unemployment, with a rate of 0.6% of the working age population on Jobseekers Allowance. I […]

I have received this email from Scotia Gas Networks (SGN): “Following my call to your office earlier today, here’s some more information on the gas supply incident we are managing in the Burghfield Common area. We were called to James Lane, Burghfield (RG30) yesterday evening after our gas main was damaged by a third-party contractor. […]

The government’s Start up loans scheme has helped 25,000 new small business so far. They now wish to treble that number to 75,000 up to 2020. In the South East there have been over 2000 loans made worth more than £11 million. 14 of these have been in the Wokingham constituency. If you are a […]

A few hospitals this winter have had to put a temporary stop to some non urgent work in order to cope with the large numbers of people arriving at A and E. Fortunately this has not happened to our local hospitals. There are, however, pressures on the A and E departments of most hospitals. Demand […]

All those interested in the project for a new school at Arborfield are invited to put their views to the Council and hear the Council’s latest thinking on this project on 21 January. There will be a meeting about it at the Henry Street Garden Centre, Swallowfield Road, Arborfield at 7pm.

Wokingham and West Berkshire Councils have a problem with the money allocated for social care next year. A change of government requirements and a change in the funding system has left both short of cash. I had a meeting with the Secretary of State with my Parliamentary colleague from Newbury to put the case for […]