News

Cllr Lee said he was not in favour of 'fake consultations'
advertisement

Row as council keeps its budget secret

By Victoria Smith
January 17, 2012

Taxpayers in Wokingham are being kept in the dark about the next budget, while other local councils have already published details of spending cuts and confirmed a tax freeze.

Councillor David Lee, leader of Wokingham Borough Council, said he did not think consulting on the budget as other authorities do is necessary because it would “just be a PR exercise”.

Cllr Lee said he was “not a believer in fake consultations” and that councillors have been elected to make the difficult decisions of where funds should be directed and spending cuts need to be made.

He would also not be drawn on whether Wokingham people will benefit from a Government grant enabling local authorities to freeze council tax this year.

Bracknell and Reading councils have published details of their budget proposals, including a freeze on council tax, and asked local people to have their say.

Cllr Prue Bray, leader of Wokingham Liberal Democrats, said: “The Conservatives in Wokingham keep everything to themselves until they have to [by law] publish the papers the week before the budget meeting in February.

“Not only do the public have no idea what’s going on, opposition councillors are deliberately kept in the dark.”

Cllr Lee said the ruling Conservatives had the support of the public to make tough decisions on the budget and that any consultation would not be useful when the borough’s budget is already cut to the bone.

He said the council will be getting £119 per person to spend in Wokingham in the next financial year and it continues to be the worst funded local authority in the country.

The council held a consultation exercise last year, which was overseen by external consultants from Ernst and Young, regarding its priorities and vision.

Cllr Lee said this involved people and partners, such as the police, in establishing what the council’s vision should be.

Changes already announced for next year include a £60 charge for green waste collection.

He said: “People say it should be free. We will raise £1 million by charging for the green waste collection. If we decide to make it free, what services would be cut?”

The council will set its budget on February 23.

| View Comments (16)

« Previous Story | Next Story »

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.

Most recent user comments 15 of 16

1 | 2 | Next Page Show 15 | 25 | 50 per page

Personally, I think this is a disgraceful decision by the Wokingham executive. What else is withholding the budget going to do other than stifle debate (of which, frankly, there is too little anyway in Wokingham local politics). I've blogged about it, if people are interested in more detail:

http://matthewsdent.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/budget-making-in-the-dark/

Matthew S. Dent, Wargrave
19/01/2012 at 18:18

Thankyou Matthew; sad but true.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
19/01/2012 at 14:36

@ Damiano_Tommassi

Ideally, if a council administration failed to do what it pledged to, then it would be voted out (hence the real problem with one party dominance- there's no holding of representatives to account).

In some situations, it may be possible to take a council to court over such a failure, but I don't have the expertise to say whether or where.

Matthew S. Dent, Wargrave
19/01/2012 at 13:43

The idea is that improving business (shopping) in W'ham will increase the rates paid to the council; so that the 9m up-front investment earns us more in taxes in the long-term. Assuming that the logic and figures are sound, then it is truly an investment and sounds a good idea.

Thanks for showing us the regeneration website (wokinghamregeneration.co.uk) alex_f. So, if the regeneration is at least a couple of months behind where it should be (to be generous) what is the consequence? If the council says 'we will do X by this date' and then doesn't does anything happen? At all?

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
19/01/2012 at 12:53

Damiano - you're completely correct, certainly no argument with that. They've already missed the initial indicative milestone of having the plans submitted for the Peach Place refurbishment, which was due by the end of last year, with the actual refurbishment taking place by the summer of this year. With no plans drawn up this would now be pretty impossible. All seemingly over the development partner or manager issue. I believe revised timescales are due to be released in the next few weeks on the wokinghamregeneration.co.uk website.

Andy - whilst I can understand that some (ok alot) of people have yet to be convinced about the regeneration, especially considering it has been so long in the making and people who have lived here for decades have probably heard the same story year after year from the WBC, whether naively or not, I for one as a relative newbie to the area am looking forward to it. I'm sure there are far worse things that the council could have wasted 9 million on. Granted 9 million could have gone on lowering everyones rates - but I doubt that would be the first thing it would go on!

alex_f, Wokingham
18/01/2012 at 17:26

The budget is up for debate on February 23rd, at 8pm (with an Executive Committee meeting) which is open to the public. If commenters feel strongly about the budget and the council's spending, I urge them to join me in the public gallery at both, and see our local "democracy" at work.

Matthew S. Dent, Wargrave
18/01/2012 at 09:49

alex_f - I think the regeneration would've started by now if the council hadn't decided to take it back from the original project leader in 2010, which has set us back a way. I'm ready to be corrected though.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
18/01/2012 at 09:35

So ugly empty buildings vs pretty empty buildings. Still sounds like money well spent

Andy Shaw
18/01/2012 at 09:30

I do also agree that the regeneration is long overdue. If the council didn't purchase the parade of shops, we would always be in a nice market town with an unfortunate bunch of complete crap 60's buildings. The quicker they go the better, and fingers crossed they are replaced with some buildings of actual merit.

alex_f, Wokingham
17/01/2012 at 21:03

We were assured by our council that the money spent on WBC (or WEL) taking-over the regeneration from the private company would be positive in every way - control, speed, quality, value. I think it was nearer 13 million, wasn't it?

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
17/01/2012 at 16:51

Should 9 milllion have been spent on buying empty shops or providing service to the local community

Andy Shaw
17/01/2012 at 15:36

Larry S you make me laugh

Andy Shaw
17/01/2012 at 15:33

The town centre redevelopment has the real risk of being a financial disaster.

If it was viable why did no commercial developer take it on.

Councils should not be speculating with our money. As with a commercial venture where the owners are responsible in this case the councillors should be responsible for any shortfall.

The people of Wokingham are generally so stupid they would vote conservative whatever their policies just as voters in the northeast or northwest generally vote labour.

The conservatives in Wokingham could probably say they are going to close all the schools (to save money) and those who don't have school age children would still vote for them or not vote at all.

come on lads
17/01/2012 at 13:34

Wokingham is not 'the worst funded local authority in the country'. It may well be the worst funded all-purpose (i.e. Unitary) authority but other shire districts are worse funded.

As for the town centre refurbisment, this is long overdue and a perfect example of where the Borough Council are using our money responsibly. It most certainly is not a waste. If Mr Shaw disagrees then presumably we will see his name on a Borough Council ballot paper in May.

LarryS
17/01/2012 at 12:12

Oh my, so much to comment on here!

"leader of Wokingham Borough Council, said he did not think consulting on the budget as other authorities do is necessary because it would “just be a PR exercise”." - and yet consultations are regular, and when they happen - for example, over the building of housing near Arborfield - the public say 'the council didn't listen'. Having worked there, there was never a time when consulting with the public EVER changed the council's opinion or approach.

"Cllr Lee said he was “not a believer in fake consultations”" - see above! They happen all the time. Look back through this website's articles for evidence.

"The council held a consultation exercise last year, which was overseen by external consultants from Ernst and Young, regarding its priorities and vision. Cllr Lee said this involved people and partners, such as the police, in establishing what the council’s vision should be." – so we (taxpayers) paid a private company a large amount of money to come and tell our elected representatives, those who are supposed to love and lead this area, what to think and do. Is that not a massive waste and duplication of effort? And why does an outside company’s opinion of our town matter more than OUR opinions?

“Changes already announced for next year include a £60 charge for green waste collection. He said: “People say it should be free. We will raise £1 million by charging for the green waste collection. If we decide to make it free, what services would be cut?”” – this is so close to dishonest as to be offensive. I’m tired of politicians (local and national) telling us ‘we must do this thing that we’ve just decided to, there is no choice’. It is not true, there are many choices – but we don’t get presented with those, just the decisions that have been taken. Go for it, charge for collection; see fly-tipping (albeit of organic material) rise, and recycling fall. Won’t that cost us in clean-up fees and reduction in green subsidies?