I was delighted to be elected as the new Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group a few days ago, and I’d like to personally thank everyone who voted Liberal Democrats in this election.
We enter a new year for Reading Borough Council and very little has changed – only one seat changed hands at the local elections on May 4.
I was very pleased to see my ward colleague Councillor Anne Thompson retain her seat with over half the vote here in Tilehurst.
However, we have seen wholesale change across Berkshire and the surrounding region, with Windsor & Maidenhead, West Berkshire and Wokingham and South Oxfordshire Councils now all being run by the Liberal Democrats.
For the first time in decades, there is Lib Dem representation on every single Council within Berkshire. In total, we saw 400 gains in Councillors across England, with the Conservatives losing over a 1,000.
Across the coming year in the face of a shambolic Conservative government, the Liberal Democrats in Reading will still be holding Labour to account as they still have a responsibility to run things effectively.
We’ll be looking at everything critically, Labour can’t just excuse themselves because of what the national government is doing.
We will continue to work hard for residents to be their voice – if anyone would like to contact us please do so at our website – readinglibdems.org.uk
Cllr James Moore is a Liberal Democrat Councillor for Tilehurst, and leader of the Reading Liberal Democrats
