Reading Borough Council – 19 October 2010

Last night Reading Borough Council met for the first time in several months as a full Council. We had a full agenda with a wide range of public and Councillor questions, several reports and a number of motions. You can see the full agenda here.

There were several major items that dominated the evening and the political discussion. The first one of significance was the issue of the Maiden Erlegh school catchment area. Maiden Erlegh is a Wokingham Borough school to which many parents in east Reading curently send their children. Wokingham have launched a consultation on the catchment areas and Reading residents are understandably concerned at the possibility that they may lose the right to send their children to the local school which happens to be over the Borough border. This fear has been ruthlessly exploited by the Labour party.

A motion was moved by Park ward Councillor Jon Hartley which inaccurately referred to “Wokingham plans to exclude children from attending their local secondary school ”. Apart from the fact that Wokingham have no such plans, it is also the case that the reason that so many Reading parents hve to send their children out of the Borough is Labour’s failure over many years to provide sufficient spaces in Reading schools. We are therefore now potentially at the mercy of another authority IF they decide to change the admissions criteria. Cllr Hartley was aided and abetted by former Labour Councillor Richard McKenzie who asked a question, stating his view that the Council should be threatening Wokingham with legal action, despite the fact that this is only a consultation and no decisions have been taken. In the debate on Cllr Hartley’s motion I made the point that you do not respond to a neighbour by threatening legal action as the first course of action, especially if you are asking them to take a decision that is of benefit to us but no benefit to them!

The Conservative / Lib Dem administration position is that all options will be considered in order to protect the parents’ rights to send their children to Maiden Erlegh but before threatening legal action we want to respond to Wokingham’s consultation with constructive suggestions as to the outcome of the review. Only if WBC take a decision that is not in the interests of our residents will we pursue “the nuclear option” of legal action.

Throughout the debate McKenzie was in the public gallery occasionally shouting comments and seeking to interupt the debate, contrary to procedures of which he is well aware. The Labour nominated Mayor failed to take any action to prevent the disruptions from the gallery, preferring instead to criticise Councillors who were frustrated at his chairing of the meeting and lack of action. Absurdly both Hartley and Mckenzie claimed that they were not seeking to politicise the issue and criticised the administration for doing so. They chose to ignore the fact that they both misrepresented the real position and sought to enflame the fears of local residents. That is pretty despicable politics. It is also sad that they seem to have suckered Cllr Rob White of the Green party into supporting them. He seconded the Labour motion and spoke to support much of what Cllr Hartley had said. By contract Conservative Park ward Councillor Wazir Hussain spoke passionately in support of the parents and their rights but supported the administration approach to getting the right solution from Wokingham.

After the meeting I am informed that McKenzie verbally abused a woman in the public gallery who is the wife of a Wokingham Councillor. I am also told that he was abusive and threatening to a female Councillor and then sexually suggestive! Jane Griffiths has an account on her blog which I am happy to confirm I have seen confirmed by other evidence, some directly from those involved last night. The same McKenzie also complained about Cllr Swaine tweeting on his account during the meeting and yet was seen taking photos of the Council meeting, contrary to the rules. You can read McKenzie’s side of the story here.

I feel sorry for the parents in the gallery who have had their campaign hijacked by Cllr Hartley and Mr McKenzie. All Councillors want to see parents retain the right to send children to Maiden Erlegh school but we disagree as to tactics.

We did not only discuss school catchment areas. We had a series of questions a couple of which were for me to answer. Cllr John Ennis tabled a rather silly question: “Does the Lead Councillor for Strategic Planning and Transport admit that his continual rejoicing of the Lib Dems’ collapsing support in the polls on his blog suggests that he expects the ConDem coalition to end sooner rather than later, and that he does not support the coalition with the Lib Dems?” This question got the answer it deserved when I simply replied: “No”.  As I hoped, Cllr Ennis took the bait with a supplementary question which then allowed me to attack his trivial and inaccurate statement and point out that Labour really had a lot to learn. I read from a document I was given which was a record of a session in the summer when Labour had to have a training session on how to be an effective opposition. I will blog more on this soon but suffice to say Labour looked stunned and were silent while the coalition enjoyed a quiet chuckle. We had a long time to learn the art of opposition and I suspect that Labour will have a long time yet to master the art, especially if Cllr Hartley and Mr McKenzie’s performances are anything to go by.

One other item worth noting was the motion moved by Cllr Andrew Cumpsty accepting Cllr Mike Townend’s resignation from the Cabinet due to the pressures of work and the appointment of Cllr Jeanette Skeats to replace him. Mike has been a superb Cabinet colleague for the last few months and he has brought a broad base of business experience to the table as well as a passion for the needs of voluntary groups in the town. He will be missed. However, I do know that Jeanette will do an excellent job as well. We are very fortunate to have so many people of high calibre in the two coalition parties.