Category: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

 

       Several people have written to me to complain that Network Rail is closing bridges at both Aldermaston Wharf and Sulhamstead Hill for replacement works at the same time. According to the West Berkshire website the works will continue at Sulhamstead Hill until 11 July and at Aldermaston until September.

       I am taking this up with West Berkshire,the highways authority, and the railway. It would be much better if these works have to be done to do them one after the other rather than at the same time. Local businesses complain that they had little warning, and it is causing extra cost and delays.

 

     I attended the Burghfield celebrations for the Jubilee today. The fete and lunch were well attended, with a wide range of stalls and events. I would like to thank the organisers for all the effort they put in to ensuring a great afternoon for the village.

 

          This morning I will be attending the REME Parade in Wokingham at 9 am, followed by the Civic Parade at 10.30 am and the Service of Thanksgiving at All Saints Church at 11.15 am.

 

      I have met police officers to hear their worries about the Winsor proposals on police pay. Understandably some police officers are worried that their pay will be cut, owing to the new scales and the enlarged pension contributions.

      I took these matters up with Mr Winsor this week when he came to the Commons to hear MPs concerns and to listen to our representations on behalf of constituents. I put to him the worries about pay, and said that I did not think we wanted to cut police pay for officers doing important work fighting crime.

      He said that on his proposals most police officers would be better off. He explained that there would be extra payments for anti social hours, for front line duties and for special skills. When I asked why so many police officers did not seem to think this would be the case he said he had set out on line a calculator so they could check it out for themselves. He argued that his proposals had been misrepresented in the media.

      If any local police officer is worried about the pay  changes, they can log on to review.police.uk and will see on the front page a calculator facility to open which will enable to work out easily what the changes might mean for them. Mr Winsor says it will be reassuring to many. I am happy to take cases up again if officers find their calcultations do not come up with a fair and reasonable answer.

 

            I was saddened today to hear of another accident at the Ufton Nervet railway crossing.  I  understand a scooter rider was knocked down and killed by the oncoming Paddington to Taunton train.

             I send my condolences to the rider’s family. It will come as a great shock to lose a loved one so suddenly like that.

             The train was brought to a halt without any injury to people on board. Preliminary reports suggest that the crossing was working as it should.   I have asked to be kept informed, and will of course take action should those involved wish me to assist them.

 

 

          Over recent weeks I have been out and about on doorsteps supporting local Conservative candidates for the Council elections. I have been in Wokingham and Winnersh, Earley and Shinfield, where the nine contests were taking place. I am grateful to constituents who spent time telling me their thoughts and feelings on local and national matters. I now have some more casework to pursue.

           8  Conservatives and 1 Liberal Democrat were elected as Councillors. I congratulate them all, and look forward to working with them where there are matters requiring co-operation between national and local levels of government.

          I also always look at what defeated candidates were saying, and do not ignore the views of their supporters. This time the most notable feature was the rise of the Greens. The party fielded 6 candidates and shot into fourth place after the three main parties.  They did best in Shinfield South, where they took 31% of the vote.

         Conservatives  were very conscious of the sudden surge in Green support in Shinfield. My impression on the doorstep there  was that residents are concerned  about the expansion of the village and the impact that will have on the local environment. I did not find people wanted to talk to me about wider Green party issues like climate change, nor did anyone ask for green policies to make energy  dearer to reduce use more. I am sure our re-elected Councillor there has understood the worries and will work closely with the village over any development proposals to limit their impact and to ensure sensible sites are used.

        The overall figures for votes cast in the nine Wokingham constituency seats on WBC are given below in order of party success:

 

Conservative                                8377      48.8%

Liberal Democrat                        3824      22.3%

Labour                                              2223     13%

Green                                                 1356       7.9%

UKIP                                                   1280      7.5%

Independent                                        82      0.5%

At the General Election in 2010 in the Wokingham constituency as a whole the percentages were Conservative 52.7%, Lib Dem 28%, Labour 10% , various Independents 5%, UKIP 3%, Greens 1%.

Compared to 2008 the Conservative, Lib Dem and UKIP votes all fell, whilst the Green vote rose by over 1000 and Labour also gained.

I wish all Conservative candidates in tomorrow’s local elections well at the polls.

The Council has kept the Council Tax down for the last two years, which has been a welcome relief given the pressure on individual and family budgets.

The new waste scheme is settling in, and provides a new weekly collection of recycling materials, as well as maintaining the weekly collection of other refuse. I hope others are finding as I am that the new blue sacks are large enough and strong enough for the job. The extra recycling collection is a welcome improvement.

We need a Council which will spend wisely, seek value for money in all it does, and keep the bills down. I have as always found it most interesting to hear many views from the doorstep during the campaign.

 

            I attended today the All Party Group on Equitable Life compensation at the request of constituents. The Group’s executive raised a number of important issues about who is eligible for compensation, how the compensation is calculated, when people will receive their cheques, and if more information will be made available for them to be able to check their payment calculation.

              The issues raised need Ministerial answer. I agreed with the meeting that the MP officers of the Group should write another letter to the  Minister, Mr Hoban, on behalf of all our constituents. I will keep you posted about this when we get a reply.

The Government has published a consultation paper on reforms to park homes and mobile home / caravan site licensing.  It is intended that the proposals would put the park home sector on a sustainable footing for the long term, allowing site operators to run good businesses, offer a decent service to residents and ensure that home owners can live peacefully in their homes knowing that the law protects them from abuse.

 

The consultation is aimed at tackling a number of complaints made by residents of some mobile home site operators, for example:

 

• blocking an owner’s sale of their home – without justifiable reason;
• neglecting their sites and failing to make adequate repairs; and
• charging excessive pitch fees, breaching site rules and stopping owners from improving their homes.

 

The proposed changes include:

 

• changing legislation to improve other residents’ rights to reflect their status as home owners by, for example, allowing them to carry out home improvements without seeking permission;
• strengthening the rules around the sale of mobile homes so that unscrupulous operators cannot interfere with owners selling to a qualifying buyer who they have chosen;
• ensuring compliance with site licence conditions by enabling the courts to impose unlimited fines on operators who do not manage their sites properly;
• allowing local authorities to make a reasonable charge on site operators for their licensing services, which they are currently unable to do; and
• giving local authorities the power to carry out works on sites in an emergency or where the site operator has been found guilty of a breach of the licence, and charge the cost back to them.

 

If you would like to take part in the consultation, which is open until 28 May, please do so via the Department of Communities and Local Government website at:

www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/mobilehomeowners

This week one correspondent asked if all the work I was doing on national and international issues on the economy was getting in the way of being a good  local MP for Wokingham. It was a very strange intervention, as the state of the UK and EU economies are crucial to the living standards of my constituents, the fortunes of local businesses and to the quality of life generally.  An MP has no power to decide local planning applications, to re-order local highways, settle local social service provision, fix the level of the Council Tax  or allocate places to local schools, all matters of great concern to many constituents. We elect Councillors in Wokingham Borough and West Berkshire to do this for us, and they do not usually appreciate an MP trying to do their job for them by offering them  public advice.

 

MPs are elected to help shape national laws that affect all in every constuency, to challenge the national government on the services it delivers and the taxes it raises, to help governments decide budgets, war and peace, general approach to the NHS,  foreign policy and the rest. Most of my constituents understand this distinction between the role of an MP and the role of a Councillor, and keep me very busy with emails and letters on a wide range of national and Parliamentary matters.

This week a couple of cases that matter a lot to constituents illustrate the importance of national economic issues to Wokingham, and show how an MP working on national problems is also working for his constituents on local manifestations of the national problem. A couple of cases have added to my list of those who are either being pushed by their bank to renegotiate their business loans and pay more, or being denied access to commercial mortgage credit which they need for a good purpose.

 

I have regularly raised the state of the banks with Ministers, in Parliamentary debates and on my website. The government has now accepted the need for a credit easing scheme. My own constituency experience will enable me to return to Ministers next week with requests that more is done, as it is quite clear that Project Merlin and Credit Easing so far have not solved the problems. These were themselves government responses to the points I and other MPs made about the problems in our constituencies.  The strength of the UK one member constituency system stems from how an   MP has direct constituency experience of what is working and what is not, which can help guide how we spend our time and which causes we campaign on. It gives us live examples to share with Minsiters to back up the case we are making.