By Cllr Jason Brock
Next Wednesday, 25th May, is Reading Borough Council’s AGM. This is the meeting at which committee memberships are formally appointed and Lead Councillors take up their positions.
Ordinarily, we’d also appoint the Mayor for the forthcoming year, but this time Cllr Rachel Eden will be continuing in post for a further year to complete an 18-month stint owing to the disruption of the pandemic.
On a day-to-day basis, it’s the Lead Councillor team that most residents will hear from, especially in the media, as we drive forward our plans and policies. I’m absolutely delighted, then, to have such a strong team on the frontbench. A reshuffling of portfolio responsibilities means that there are new titles and new remits.
Cllr John Ennis will be continuing in the Adult Social Care portfolio, while Cllr Graeme Hoskin will pick up the Children brief, and Cllr Ruth McEwan is taking on Education and Public Health. Collectively, they will be responsible for services that very directly affect people’s lives. They’re also all services where the underfunding of local councils by Government has generated considerable pressures, but we remain committed to making Reading a great place to grow up and grow old, so Labour is looking to be innovative in the face of challenges.
Across these areas, the effects of the pandemic will be felt for some time, and it is imperative that we work to ensure that we can best support people as we move into a period of recovery.
Leisure and Culture will fall under Cllr Adele Barnett-Ward, an especially exciting area as we look forward to the opening of new swimming pools and leisure centres as well as a major investment programme in playgrounds. Housing remains with Cllr Ellie Emberson, who continues to push on with our delivery of over 300 new Council homes over the next four years as well as our plans to drive up standards in the private rented sector. Cllr Karen Rowland, meanwhile, will be picking up the Environmental Services and Community Safety remit, which covers bin collections, road resurfacing, street cleaning and park maintenance, and liaison with the Police. These three portfolios are all services very much in the public eye, and we’ll work hard to address the everyday frustrations residents have told us about alongside bringing forward new plans to enhance communities and neighbourhoods right across Reading.
Coordinating responsibility for Climate Strategy and Transport will fall under Cllr Tony Page, who also remains Deputy Leader of the Council. Clearly, tackling the climate crisis is a thread woven throughout everything the Council does, and Tony has been a key figure in taking Reading to national leadership and international recognition in this area. New to the frontbench is Cllr Micky Leng, who is picking up the Planning and Assets portfolio and will be overseeing the ongoing refinement of our planning policy framework as well as the way in which we can best use the Council’s estate to deliver both our services and support our community partners. Finally, Cllr Liz Terry is moving to the Corporate Services and Resources brief where she will be tasked with driving our emerging work to tackle economic inequalities in the town – a vital area if we are to ensure that everyone can share in Reading’s success.
I’m really looking forward to working with these nine incredibly talented and dedicated individuals to deliver for residents right across our town. They’re all genuine champions of Reading and its communities and, with so many exciting plans to progress, we’ll all be incredibly busy too – but doing our bit to improve the lives of residents is what we’re here for, and I know everyone is brimming with energy to hit the ground running.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council
