By Cllr Raj Singh
Competent leadership and robust policies should always underpin our thriving local communities and their neighbourhoods.
Unfortunately, Reading Borough Council has been run by the same tired Labour administration for most of the last 24 years.
Over its lengthy time in office, it’s presided over a catalogue of failures, not least its – still ongoing – accounting fiasco, which has to date cost Reading’s residents well over £1 million in extra auditing fees, with yet further costs to come as officers continue to work to rectify the problems.
The failures by this Labour administration and its complacent leadership style is, in fact, at the heart of deteriorating local services.
Under Reading’s Labour administration, your Council Tax has doubled over the past two decades and is currently the highest in Berkshire; yet they have missed opportunities to offset central government funding reductions with far-sighted financial strategies.
For some councils, returns from prudent policies and investments can successfully generate up to £30m of additional income every year – enough to cover annual spending on adult social care services or those for children and young people.
For example, current methods to detect and repair potholes here are labour intensive, slow, unsafe and are costly to the local economy and the environment. Investing in the latest technology would help to assess potholes in seconds rather than weeks. Satellite imaging or fitting sensors under Council waste vehicles to inspect the roads as they work are already used by several councils today.
Blackpool Council, for example, has fixed 5,145 potholes at a cost of just under £450,000. It would have cost £1.5m using traditional methods, but instead saved £1m of local taxpayer’s cash last year in the process.
To achieve net-zero carbon emissions, many councils are also successfully running cycle hire schemes across the country. However, in Reading, the Labour administration mothballed Readybike in March 2019 at a cost to the taxpayer of around £1.9 million, with many of the bikes being given away – or disposed of – and the stands just left redundant; another severe dent in our town’s ambitious plans to meet its climate emergency targets.
It shows that only Conservative-led councils can effectively run environmentally-friendly schemes with the overall strategy and co-ordination that’s needed.
Another example: A Freedom of Information by the Conservatives revealed that fly-tipping reports from recycling sites – reported on the Love Clean Reading app – showed a huge increase of 1,619% between January 2019 and December 2020. It proves that glass recycling banks are now, unfortunately, acting as magnets for fly-tipping.
To run glass recycling banks costs the Council around £155,000 annually and only brings in around £5,000 each year. Introducing kerbside glass recycling – something many residents are demanding – would significantly reduce fly-tipping across Reading.
So to improve our environment cost effectively, a Conservative-led Council will scrap the annual garden waste bin charge, tackle fly-tipping and prosecute those who continue to dumping it.
Similarly, the building of cohesive, flourishing communities lies at the core of the Council’s day-to-day business and cuts across a range of different policy areas.
Thames Valley Police, though, has reported a gradual increase in racial hate crime in recent years, including racist or religiously aggravated crimes, along with reports of a rise in hate crimes against transgender people.
Last year, for instance, an Indian Sikh taxi driver in Tilehurst was slapped and shoved as he drove along the A33 after collecting men in the early hours from the Grosvenor Casino in Reading. One of the men tried to remove his turban and asked him: “Are you Taliban?”
A Conservative-led Reading Borough Council would implement an effective community cohesion strategy to fight such blatant discrimination, working closely with the police and community groups to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, ensuring our streets are kept safe and secure.
Finally, Reading is the third-largest “Tech City” in the UK, with a recent Gartner poll showing that 48% of employees would be likely to work remotely, at least part of the time, post-pandemic. Reading has a younger population profile than many of its neighbouring towns with many people choosing to live in, or move to, our town, mainly for its fantastic work and education opportunities, the cost of running a home here and its vibrant social life.
However, today’s technology sector workers can choose to live anywhere in the country where the cost of running a house is low, where they have access to quality leisure, sports, and swimming pools, where there are better children’s services, where streets are safer, and where parks and open spaces are well maintained all year round, while continuing to work for the same employer. It’s therefore paramount that the Council offers demonstrable value for money for our residents – not saddle them with ever increasing, high Council Tax bills, particularly during the present cost of living crisis.
Conservative-run Councils have a proven reputation for keeping your taxes low. Your support – by casting your three votes on May 5, for the Conservative candidates standing in your ward – will help us to bring that positive difference to Reading; one that will protect our environment, keep our communities safe and invest your money wisely.
Cllr Raj Singh is the Reading Borough Council Conservative spokesperson on Housing, Neighbourhoods and Leisure and the party’s candidate for Kentwood Ward
