We’re now a week on from the local elections and I am still delighted that the electorate have, once again, placed their trust in Labour to run Reading Borough Council.
All our incumbent councillors were re-elected, and we also gain a new Labour councillor in Caversham Heights.
I’m very much looking forward to welcoming Cllr Sam Juthani to the Labour benches and I’m certain he’ll be a great advocate for his ward.
Naturally, I pay tribute to all my party’s candidates and I’m especially grateful to those who were unsuccessful this year but nonetheless gave it their absolute all.
Elections are exhausting – mentally and physically – and there is often insufficient recognition that candidates are primarily motivated by a desire to do public service.
In that spirit, I extend gratitude to every candidate of whatever political stripe who put themselves and their ideas before the electorate; good representative democracy depends on people coming forward.
With the electorate having endorsed our vision and plans for Reading, it’s now incumbent on Labour councillors to deliver against it. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and the full package includes things that will touch upon the lives of everyone in our town. Our work to tackle economic inequality will ramp up, our Council home building programme will expand, road resurfacing will increase, a new theatre and central library will be built, and more playgrounds will be delivered across the town.
At the same time, we’ll continue to tackle the climate crisis through better and cheaper public transport, more active travel schemes, more housing retrofit, and a greater emphasis on sustainability.
Our programme of investments and service improvements will have positive effects on our lives as residents. At the same time, we also know that ensuring our more bespoke services like adult and children’s social care continue to deliver is a fundamental necessity for so many in our town. We’ll maintain our focus on ensuring that your Council is there when you need it and making sure that you get value for money from it.
For me, the highlight of an election campaign is talking to residents. I have this pleasure all year round, especially in Southcote, but elections tend to focus minds on what really matters to them.
It’s been humbling to hear about the things that you think we get right as well as the things you feel we get wrong.
I do take such feedback on board and will reflect with my colleagues on what we might be able to change and what we can push forward further and faster because it matters to you.
Finally, I’ll once again return to a fairly common theme I write about here – that is the virtue of our Council’s committee-based system. It is, by design, more deliberative, discursive, and collegial than the more adversarial executive system in our neighbouring boroughs.
But it only works at its best if the minor parties participate fully.
Accordingly, I renew my call for the opposition to take on a constructive and useful role in our decision-making as we in Labour exercise our decisive mandate to lead Reading forward.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and ward member for Southcote
