Category: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

          I visited St Teresa’s on Friday as part of my regular programme of constituency visits.

          They raised two main issues of concern. They wish to expand their school. This requires permission to increase the size of the building. They would like to do this by extending outwards into the car park in front. I welcome their wish to expand, as I understand it is a popular school with disappointed parents who cannot obtain a place there for their son or daughter. In principle I favour parental choice and that requires the expansion of popular schools.

         I explained  that this is a local matter, and they need to discuss it with Councillors and Council planning officials. I have no objection myself to their outline plan, but clearly we need to know the views of the neighbours. It is also important to have a way of  handling  staff and parent cars if the car park in front is to be reduced in size.

        The teachers also raised the issue of teachers pensions. I explained that I am urging Ministers and representatives of the employers, to sit down and negotiate a fair settlement of all the issues. Of course the teachers side should have access to the actuarial calculations and information on what various changes would do to the costs on the fund as well their impact on teachers pensions. The context of the talks is the need to implement a higher retirement age overall to reflect improvements in longevity, to move to equality between men and women, and to control the overall costs of public pensions. Within this framework there is scope to negotiate a preferred timetable and solution on the individual components of pensions, and to reflect the differing circumstances in the public sector over contribution rates and accumulated assets where they exist. I will talk again to Mr Gove about this.

Last year, I published an article about a young Wokingham resident who tragically died on 18 February 2010 from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Her family has now set up a new charity, the Katie Haines Memorial Trust which has raised a considerable sum of money in an effort to raise awareness of carbon monoxide and to try to persuade people to buy an audible carbon monoxide alarm.  Carbon monoxide has no taste or smell and is difficult to detect, meaning that these alarms can be life saving devices.

To find out more about the work of the charity, please visit the website at: www.katiehaines.com.

The Wokingham Secondary Federation are organising a Careers Fair on 6^th October 2011. It will be held at the Loddon Valley Leisure Centre, Lower Earley, Wokingham. Last year this event attracted over 2000 young people, over 400 came with their parents.

Click on this link to see the venue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTMmpEBl-8c

The following opportunities will be available:

1. To interact with potential employees
2. To help young people make informed decisions
3. To help young people understand the qualifications they need
4. To promote your company to hundreds of young people and their parents

John Redwood, who is supportive of this event, said “I welcome the excellent initiative by the Wokingham Secondary Federation to organise a Careers Fair. It will be a great opportunity for young people to meet potential employers and to learn more about the wide range of opportunities available for future jobs. It will also be good for local employers to make contact with the student talent we have in Wokingham. I wish everyone involved a successful and fruitful day” .

          John Redwood joined representatives of Wokingham scouts at a reception given in the Speaker’s House. After the speeches he showed them parts of the Palace and told them a little of the history of the great building. A number of MPs turned up to celebrate the achievement of the scouting movement, and to thank the volunteers who run it.

          I agree with constituents who have written urging a minimum distance to be set between any new windfarm and residential areas. I have taken this up directly with the Minister, Charles Hendry.  I have written to the department, and have asked the Minister in a meeting to change the law to enforce such a gap. He has not so far  agreed to this proposal. In the meantime I urge our local Councils to use their planning powers to veto windfarms that are too close to homes, as Wokingham recently did.

         UKIP put up candidates in 6 Unitary Council wards in the Wokingham part of my constituency, leaving 5 wards without a UKIP candidate. I did not comment on this before the election. As a democrat I like living in a country where anyone can put up and make their case.

        Now it is all over I would be interested to hear from UKIP locally how they assess their election. Their share of the vote varied from 5.7% to 8.8%. They came  fifth and last in three seats, fourth and last in two seats, and fourth and second to last in the sixth. In no case did they come anywhere near being the challenger to the winner, let alone the winner.

          If their intervention was a further attempt to remind us all how important the EU issue is to everyone, it once again failed and  gave the federalists further opportunity to say voters don’t care very much about the EU. If the purpose was to offer a better way of running the local Council I would be interested to hear what part of their message they think the Council should take on board, and why they think so few voted for it.

             I welcome the principle of free schools. If parents or others wish to start a new school to fill a need in the provision of school places, that is fine by me.

            I have been approached by a group who want to establish a new secondary  school to cater for the western villages around Shinfield and Spencer’s Wood. There is more pressure on places at the Willink now,  leaving  a longer journey to  schools in the east of the Borough.

              The promoters think it would be  a good idea to use the old buildings of Ryeish Green School. There are several problems with this approach. The first is that as I was told on every visit to that school, the buildings were below the desired  standard when it was still a school. They  have not been improved by closure and neglect since. The second is they cater for a larger school than the promoters have in mind, imposing bigger upkeep and running costs on the new school. The third is the current owner, the Borough Council,  – on behalf of taxpayers – does not seem keen on allowing the use of the buildings in this way.

           I was asked to check if the new government  has taken powers to require a Council to make property available for a Free school. The answer is No. The Secretary of State for Education inherits a power to influence the use of the property at the time of school closure, which of course happened some time ago before the Free school idea was developed.

           The best course of action seems to be for the promoters to negotiate with the Borough Council, as it would be best to proceed by agreement.

            Numerous residents have written to me concerning the new proposals for the catchment area of Maiden Erlegh School.

             I did lobby Councillors to maximise the use local residents can make of the school, preferring Wokingham Borough pupils over those from outside the Borough. I have now contacted Councillor Stanton, the Executive memebr responsible, to say that there are strong feelings that the draft proposal does not give a high enough priority to local residents close to the school to the north. There is general satisfaction in Lower Earley about the arrangements to the south of the school.

           This is an important decision which is entirely the responsibility of our Councillors.

           The comparative figures for the costs of each MP and his or her office have  come out for 2008-9. These confirm that I cut the costs of running my office and myself by 12% in the year to March 2009 compared to the previous year.  This took me from being the 18th cheapest MP to being the 11th cheapest. I cut more than 10% the following year as well, but the comparative figures are not yet published.

                Wokingham Borough will be able to spend more in cash terms next year than this, following the local government settlement. The education budget will show a small real increase, whilst the rest of the revenue spending shows minus 0.6% in “estimated revenue spending power” 2011-12   in today’s figures released by the government. The figure for non educational spending for next year is £117.19 million.

                  This is a much more generous settlement than the Council expected and should mean the Council can avoid any damaging cuts to core services.

                  The figures for total government revenue grant (excluding education) are £35.9 million for 2011-12 compared to £36.6 million in 2011-11. This should mean the Council could keep good services in all the important areas and avoid a Council Tax increase.