Category: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

The Councils’ bid for infrastructure money to permit a substantial new settlement at Grazeley has made it to the list for further work  by the government. The bid for more than £300 m is to provide improved transport links, schools and other public facilities that would be needed if 15000 extra homes are to  be built there.

I have always made clear that before I could support such large development at Grazeley I would need to see there was sufficient money to put in good public facilities, and would want assurances that Wokingham would not also face further large scale development elsewhere in the Borough at the same time. I also wish to hear local views on the Council proposals.

I campaigned in the last election on the slogan “Prosperity, not austerity”, and have argued that we need to spend a bit more on the NHS and education. I have also argued for higher wages, especially for the lower paid in our public services. I am therefore pleased that today we learn there will be a pay rise for NHS staff, with the largest percentage increases for those on the lowest pay. The Treasury accepts it needs to provide some more cash for the NHS to pay for this change. I continue to urge Ministers to provide enough money for Wokingham and West Berkshire services.

They are currently consulting on whether there would be much demand for a service on Boxing Day. Anyone with thoughts on this should send in their views to SW Trains.

I attended a meeting between Wokingham Council and the local government Minister earlier this week to put the case against negative grant and to argue for a better financial settlement for Wokingham and similar placed Councils at the bottom end of the grant lists. The government is currently consulting on these matters, and will publish its conclusions later this year.

There is currently a consultation underway over future water resources for the Thames Valley. The main supply companies agree that we will need a new major reservoir, and have proposed a site near Abingdon. This would be a common facility for all local water companies. It could store more water for us and put it into the river system when we need it.

Demand continues to expand with a growing population. There are one off savings in volumes when people switch to water meters. The danger in not providing additional storage capacity would come if we had three low rainfall years in succession. There could also be problems in relying too much on withdrawing water from chalk natural reservoirs, and seeking to rely on too much abstraction from rivers. Both of these can have unpleasant environmental impacts.

The extreme case of Cape Town is a warning to those who think we should keep capacity close to demand. Cape Town is now suffering badly from water shortage thanks to failing to put in more storage, and has now experienced a long period of low rainfall.

Thames Water is running its desalination plant most of the time on partial capacity, though this was designed to be an expensive long stop provision for shortage periods.

I have various complaints for the intense noise from low flying aircraft over last week-end across Berkshire. I have chased up the meeting I want with the Minister to press again on the government the need to do more to abate noise around Heathrow. If anyone has additional evidence or ideas they want put to the government please let me know over the next month.

I met Thames Water today. They liked the idea that pipes and cables ought to be placed in a conduit adjacent to the highway but not under a main road, to avoid having to dig up the road and close it every time they need to maintain, mend or improve the system. They agreed that with new development it would be particularly easy to route utilities away from the main roads and to have them in a common carrier with controlled access, and that where replacements are being deployed there is also scope to reduce the amount going under main roads. I look forward to more progress.

I am making further representations to Ministers about the need for Wokingham and West Berkshire to have a realistic grant settlement in future years, following my intervention in the Commons. If anyone has additional arguments or evidence which helps the case, please send it to me.

It is good to be able to drive around our local area again more easily and to walk the pavements without fear of slipping on ice, slush and snow.

I will be talking to the national and local roads administrators about the experiences people had of the latest freeze. I would be interested in comments from constituents about how well the national and local authorities dealt with the emergency and how things could be improved next time.

The latest unemployment figures show Wokingham is the seventh lowest constituency for unemployment with a rate of 0.7%. Locally and nationwide there are substantial vacancies which is encouraging for those who are currently between jobs or looking for work for the first time. 380 people of working age were without a job in January, 55 fewer than January 2017.