READING’S opposition party is the Greens. Last year, they consolidated their grip on second place by winning an additional seat. This time, they are hoping to improve on their representation.
Party leader Rob White says the Greens offer a strong voice on the council in holding the ruling Labour administration to account.
Is he happy with the recent council tax rise yet again being set at the maximum increase of 4.99%?
“No, I’m not,” he says. “It’s happened so many times in a row. It’s devastating what the government has done to councils, and the cuts councils have been forced to make to balance the budget.
“If the Greens were running the council, we would be looking at what we could do to reduce the council tax increase, but balance that with providing decent public services on which so many rely.”
One of the ways the Greens would run Reading differently would be by aiming to source goods and services from Reading-based businesses.
Rob explains: “The council has a massive procurement budget it uses to buy all sorts of things. We would like to see it zero in on how much is currently spent locally. Last time we asked, they didn’t have an exact figure, but said it was around about half – we want to see them get a handle on how much is spent locally.
“We’d then like to see the council look at what it can do to buy services and products from local businesses, to create jobs locally and boost the local economy. We think it would make a real difference for Reading residents and the council would be getting really decent products and decent services.”
The current administration has said it needs to find £16 million of savings, even with the council tax increase. If Rob’s party was running the council, how would it find that money?
“For a number of years, we have been raising the high costs spent on expensive agency staff and consultants. It would be far better, and far more affordable for the council, and deliver a far better level of service, if the council recruited permanent staff,” he says.
“Social work is a good example: When Brighter Futures for Children took over children’s services, we were told it would recruit staff and solve many of the problems it inherited. But, lo and behold, they’re still having trouble, so there’s money being spent on agency staff.”
He said some senior management positions on the council were also not filled.
“We’d have a real push to recruit permanent staff, and have a more stable team,” he continues.
“If you’re a service user it means you’re seeing the same social worker over a period of time rather than one one week and a totally different one the next.”
He felt the problems lay much deeper: “What we really need is a progressive government that is going to fund local authorities so they can deliver decent public services. Until we get that, councillors are going to be scrabbling around and making savings. That’s not a good position to be in because, ultimately, it’s our residents that suffer.”
The Green Party manifesto does not include any costs. Rob says setting them as an opposition party is difficult.
“When you’re running the council, you’ve got a far better level of access to council officers. You can give them an idea and they will cost it, give you various options and ways something could be delivered. As an opposition group, you just haven’t got that level of support.
“Our manifesto gives an idea of some of the priorities the Green Party has, like more financial support for people in need, affordable housing, improving bin collections, doorstep glass collections, all those sorts of thing. These are things we would push for if we were running the council.
“The reality is that Labour runs Reading Council, with a massive majority of councillors. Hopefully, after these elections, we’ll be a stronger opposition party holding Labour to account and representing residents. Our manifesto is a reflection of that.”
One of the Greens’ big policies is to push for more NHS dentistry. Isn’t this something outside of the scope of the council? Rob says not, as the council voted in 2018 to launch an oral health strategy.
“This clearly relates to people’s teeth,” he continues. “The council has not made any progress on it over the past six years. They committed to producing this strategy, but they failed to produce it.
“That would have helped our residents, our young people, have healthier teeth and be in less need of an NHS dentist. Clearly, the government has messed up here massively. Dentists have kicked patients off their books, they’ve closed their books to NHS patients, and this is creating a massive problem – the existing dentists are totally overloaded.
“We have been doing a petition for some time to try and get the council to lobby and do what it can to ensure there are enough NHS dentists. It’s horrific talking to people on the doorstep and hearing the pain and dire situations people are in because of the lack of access to an NHS dentist.”
On transport, the Greens would like to see more 20mph zones in Reading. Given concerns over the scheme in Wales, would it work in this corner of Berkshire? Rob seems to think so:
“I’m a councillor for Park ward, and all the residential roads, with the exception of Wokingham Road, Kings Road and London Road, are all 20mph, and residents like it as you get cars travelling at more appropriate speeds for the area.
“It’s then safer for young people to be out and about, it’s safer if you’re cycling, and it’s not holding up residents in any meaningful way.”
He wants to see a more uniform approach for the town.
“Labour has been introducing these 20mph zones in a patchwork fashion. We think they should bite the bullet and introduce it in all residential areas. It gets rid of the problem of not knowing what the speed limit is where you are driving: if you’re on a road with houses on, it’s 20mph.
“There is also a very strong argument for a section of road outside Reading College on Kings Road to be 20mph. It has a horrendous accident record, with deaths and serious injuries. Labour has failed to engage on this issue at all.”
Another area where the Greens want to see action is road congestion. Rob says Labour has failed to get to grips with the volume of traffic on the roads.
“They could have invested properly in walking, cycling, public transport and measures to entice people out of cars. They could put in electric charging points of cars to get rid of some of the pollution in town, which is another problem that has got worse under Labour, unfortunately,” he says.
How do you get more people out of their cars and onto bikes? Rob wants to see the council be more ambitious on this.
“It’s healthy, it’s sustainable, and it’s often a lot quicker than driving,” he says. “Greens would like to see a decent, joined-up cycle network. Unfortunately, we’ve had a scheme at Sidmouth Street which has to be the biggest waste of cycling infrastructure money there has ever been. It’s only joined up at one end, and you hardly ever see anyone using it.
“It’s cost tens of thousands of pounds so far, and it’s going to cost another £300,000 just to do the designs to connect it up at the other end, let alone to do the work.”
He also wants to see the £26.3 million the council received to boost bus travel spent on making the service cheaper for passengers.
And he has reservations about a new inbound bus lane on London Road between the Suttons Seeds roundabout and Cemetery Junction: “The council’s own modelling, which they hid from us for some time, shows it is going to double the queuing traffic coming into town.
“We asked the council to pause this scheme so it could be looked at further. Disappointingly, Labour said no to this and they’re just going to plough ahead.”
Rob says Green Party councillors work hard all year round for Reading and have a vision of making it a fairer, greener, and cleaner town.
“Unfortunately, under Labour, we have had problems with potholes, rubbish, and graffiti. Carbon reductions have been flatlining, and the council has not been moving in the right direction. We don’t have enough affordable housing.
“There are many wards in the town where the Green Party stands a really good chance of having a councillor elected. In Redlands ward, for example, we’ve got two out of three councillors and Dave McElroy stands a really good chance of being re-elected, but things are going to be close.
“Labour has a massive majority – if the Green Party had more councillors, we could hold them to account more effectively. One more Labour councillor would not make any difference at all.
“The Green party will make a difference. A vote for the Greens means a stronger opposition, we will work hard all year round to improve the local area.
“I encourage everyone to have a long, hard think about voting for the Green party for a fairer, greener, and cleaner town.”
