Week 3 as a councillor - new politics and business as usual

Long post but I want to keep Whitley residents informed about what I’m doing as a councillor rather than disappearing into a black hole.

Started with finishing off even more paperwork over the weekend!  I am actually going to get back out and about this weekend hopefully…

There was also a Labour group meeting on Monday where we discussed the Mayor making and also who would represent our party on the various cross party committees.  I am on Environment Scrutiny, SACRE (which sets the Religious Education curriculum) and on the cycling liaison committee

Obviously the biggest ‘event’ of the week was the Mayor making.  Lots of pomp and ceremony and some voting.  Disappointed really from a female point of view that they didn’t see fit to have any female Conservatives in the cabinet – despite one being their deputy leader!  You could tell the party by what we were wearing:  Conservatives, as promised, in full robes (and 3 cornered hats for the women), Libdems in their everyday clothes or suits, in Labour we all chipped in for red roses in our button holes and and Rob White, our only Green councillor had a lapel badge, which said ‘Vote Green’ – they already have Rob, that’s why you’re here!

It was lovely to see Gul made Mayor, he’s a councillor I have a lot of respect for who works really hard for his ward and for Reading as a whole.

The most controversial thing was how Scrutiny chairs (basically the cross party committees that review cabinet) will be appointed.  Jo (Lovelock) put forward an amendment to the motion that required open ballots by the scrutiny panels to elect their chairs, on the grounds of transparency.  Unfortunately the Conservative response was that this was ‘new politics’ and they'd tell us later how the chairs were going to be elected (Lib dems looked on happily).  Slightly odd as I had thought that new politics was all about openness and transparency not backroom deals?

Wednesday I went to the Aspire2 partnership meeting as a guest, a really interesting meeting.  Learnt a lot about Whitley arts week, the work of Aspire2 and was also able to offer a bit of help to them.

Thursday evening I had to miss the Whitley North NAG (Cllr Jim Hanley was there) as I felt it was important to attend the training on being an effective member of a Scrutiny Committee.  It was certainly very useful and I mean to ensure I'm a fair but effective member of Scrutiny.

Behind the scenes I’m also setting up what I hope will be a good opportunity to chat to people in the ward informally and pushing forward concerns that residents have been raising with me.  Remember, you can just email me racheleden.whitley@gmail.com or give me a call 01189675687 (although that’s my home number so I might not be there!)

Worth subscribing to

I've been subscribed to the Orwell diaries for the last few months.  If you thought a Conservative PM was bad, this is a good way of realising that if I was my Grandparents life would be much harder.

The idea is that each entry is released as a blog post but on 60th anniversary of him writing it.

While descriptions of how many eggs his hens have laid are all well and good they have just got interesting as today (60 years ago) he decides to start to mentioning the progress of the war in more detail - the posts all last Autumn have occassionally mentioned it but mostly as how it impacts the price of the food he's been selling from his smallholding.

I'd definately recommend it - I use google reader to subscribe (there's a similar project with Pepy's diary and there was one last year with Dracula that I also enjoy)

What is the true face of the coalition?

There are two straws in the wind.  And to show I'm not just being negative I'll start with the positive news.

I've never made a secret that I think that the last Labour administration was too nervous of confront vested interests and sort out unfairness in the tax system, if big business and the rich don't want it (sorry but anyone with 2 houses is rich).  I think the proposal to tax capital gains at the same rate as income is overdue.  After all money is money and it should help to reduce tax avoidance as well as raising revenue directly (and if that's used to raise the income tax threshold it's good for the average worker too).  Credit where it's due and I was pleasantly surprised to see this.

However on the other hand Labour's record on civil liberties is one I've never shouted from the rooftops, so this was an area I expected to be ruefully admitting the new administration was doing well.  So what happens on the day of the queen's speech, a day when we celebrate that the queen can't enter the commons and tell us what to do in case parliament declares war on her (the Commons have to go and be told what to do by her in the Lords instead, but still...)?  Brian Hawe, who is authorised to protest outside parliament, is arrested.

It's a bit rich to have the coalition banging on about improving civil liberties and then Westminster Council and the Mayor of London (both Conservative) attacking them outside the building with not even a comment by the Prime Minister or the Deputy?

Come off it, if civil liberties include the right to fox hunt (which I don't think they do) they include the right to be a wear a hat with badges and use awful puns to protest for what you think is right.

Keep posties on bikes!

I've just written a letter to royal mail's new chief executive, whoever that will be, asking them to reverse the proposal to phase out bike postal deliveries.  It's a decision that seems wrong on so many levels. 

I know that in Whitley ward  - from experience of visiting constituents and campaigning - and I'm sure in many other wards too cycling is actually often the quickest way to get about.  It's also very cheap (which should appeal to Royal Mail's management!), as there are minimal running costs and the upfront capital costs are low.



That's quite apart from the health benefits (and fewer sick days) for staff, the reduction in congestion and pollution as well.

This seems a completely illogical proposal and I am hugely disappointed.  The CTC (of which I'm a member) has set up a template that enables you to send your own letter.

A con-dem council? Not for long!

So the Conservatives have managed to persuade the Lib Dems to enter a coalition in Reading as well as nationally.

I could see the logic nationally.  Of course I didn't like it, any more than I liked the fact that the Conservatives got more seats than Labour - but that is democracy and it was logically and politically the more obvious thing for Clegg to do.

Locally however I just don't think it makes sense.

Here Labour are the largest group, the Tories lost a seat and Reading's Liberal Democrats have often, in my view, tried to position themselves as being to the left on the political spectrum - although any Lib Dems reading this can correct me if I'm wrong!

If this was about local issues it would have made just as much sense to go into this coalition 2 years ago when the combined group sizes would have been the same as they are now!   It's very noticeable at the new councillor's training I've been attending:  3 new Labour councillors, a Lib dem and a Green.  No new Conservatives!

Because of this I suspect this has more to do with national politics than with the good of Reading, but I'm willing to wait and see - after all the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.  I'm not someone who wants to attack councillors from other parties just because they will wear a different flower to me to the Mayor making (or, I'm reliably informed full robes in the case of the conservatives).  No one goes into politics because they want to be in opposition, they want to get things done.

However as this is the situation I find myself in as a new councillor I mean to do it well - standing up for residents in Whitley and in the borough as a whole.

And to return to the title of my post - next year's council elections I'll be everything I can to support our party's efforts to win wards currently held by the Con-liberals and the Lib-servatives, or whatever they plan to call themselves now!

(Note: in case this is not clear, this is very much my own personal take on things!)

Paper work and Basildon Park

Have been back at work this week and as busy as ever, before it quietens down for me at the end of May.

I've also been catching up on my neglected extended family, including a trip to Basildon Park with my parents.  Lovely weather and the bluebells were certainly out.

I've not been out and about in the ward this week as it's been wall to wall meetings in the evenings (I worked Saturday) and this afternoon I've been focusing on working through the vast amount of paperwork that I have received.  I've also submitted my first set of requests for help with residents' issues to the council staff and a request to get the graffiti at the bottom of Northumberland Road sorted out.

Want to join the labour party? Join the queue

What's going on?

I was just checking the website address for a local resident who is interested in joining the party and got told the server was busy.  That's NEVER happened before.

I'm assuming it's the chance to vote in the leadership elections that has caused this flurry, but it will be interesting to see whether it continues. 

Anecdotally I'm certainly hearing from more people who are interested in either helping or joining since the election result...

UPDATE: 10pm - the message now says "A record number of people are currently trying to join! Please try again in 5 minutes." so confirmed

Common wheels - in the end a good experience

I don't usually mention people I buy stuff from but just wanted to give a plug common wheels.

Joe and I have just joined this car club and tried it for the first time yesterday for a trip to visit an elderly relative (this particular trip is very tricky by train).

Booking process was very easy, more straightforward than most car rental firms.  I can also recommend their customer services after having had a problem!

When we got to the car it wouldn't unlock.  We thought that given it was Sunday morning we were in trouble but turned out that the phone number we had had a very helpful and apologetic person on the end of it.  They managed to change our booking remotely to one of the civic centre cars and offered to pay for a taxi for us to and from the civic centre for us.

Once that was done it all went very smoothly and we found it really easy to work - refuelling using the card in the car was also straightforward.

Cost wise it's massively cheaper for us than owning a car based on the amount of usage that it will get and it's a cost we can easily cut if our finances were to change by just deciding not to travel rather than a cost we have to pay every month.  It is slightly more inconvenient than having a car on the drive of course and for longer rentals for example weekends away and holidays it is probably still going to work out cheaper to rent a car from a rental company.  The flexibility is great though and the inconvenience probably is good for the environment as it makes it less likely we'll use it just because it's raining or similar!

We'll be keeping on with it and would recommend it to anyone who needs a car just on the odd occasion or a second car occasionally - there are locations at Kennet Island, civic centre (just off castle street), the avenue school and Kings road

Results time

I've been elected as Whitley ward councillor.  Some very varied results across the country.

Locally of course I'm really disappointed by the General election result but surprised and pleased by the Reading borough council elections.  Net impact is Labour are still on 19, Conservatives have lost a seat while the Liberals and Greens have both netted an extra seat.

Marion Livingston in Minster and Sarah Hacker in Battle are the other new Labour councillors, from talking to them I know we'll all aim to hit the ground running.

I was also particularly delighted to see the results in Southcote and Abbey where John Ennis and Bet Tickner were both re-elected, I'm sure due to their hard work that their constituents know that they have put in year in year out for them.

As for Whitley ward, it's great to join Mike and Jim as a councillor, I'm delighted to represent Whitley.  As I have said to residents throughout my campaign (since last summer), I promise to work hard for the ward and do all I can to get the best for the area.  I will be personally thanking all the members and supporters from all over the ward, some long standing others brand new who have given up so many hours.  We are stronger together!

The Labour councillor's motto in Whitley is "All Whitley ward, all year, every year"

It's a proud claim and I mean to live up to that.