Reading Liberal Democrats

Lib Dems on Reading Borough Council warmly welcomed support from Labour and Conservative Councillors for two of their long-running campaigns for a better deal for the town’s Council tenants.

Tenant Tax success

A motion to Council calling for an end to the hated “tenant tax” whereby millions of pounds worth of council tenants’ rent is clawed back by the treasury instead of being invested in improving council properties in Reading.

Cllr Gareth Epps, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Campaigner for Reading East pointed out at a meeting of Reading’s ruling Labour Executive last week that the current amount ‘robbed’ from council tenants in the town is around £5.5 million pounts.

At a Council meeting last night, Cllr Gareth Epps said:

“The Lib Dems have been calling for many months for the end to the scandal whereby the rent paid by some of Reading’s poorest tenants ends up in Treasury coffers.

“We revealed at Cabinet recently that this figure currently amounts to well over five miilion pounds – this is totally unacceptable and in a recession this adds insult to injury.”

“We welcome the long overdue U-turn by the Labour administration, and the belated support for our local campaign by the Conservatives, and call on all involved to get behind the national campaign led by the LGA, Defend Council Housing and many MPs to force the government to call a halt to this daylight robbery.

Cllr Daisy Benson, Liberal Democrat Housing spokesperson added:

“Our support for a rise in Council house rents this year rests on the Labour-controlled Council taking an active role in scrapping this hated tax and joining the national campaign to devolve more power over local housing decisions to councils and Council tenants in Reading.”

Lib Dems win funding for estates

Lib Dems in Reading celebrated additional funding for environmental improvements to improve the look and feel of housing estates in the town following a successful campaign.

At a meeting of Reading Borough Council held on 27 January, Labour and Conservative members supported Lib Dem calls for decent neighbourhoods and approved extra spend.

Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson, Cllr Daisy Benson said:

“We welcome in particular the £370,000 additional funding earmarked for environmental works to improve the look and feel of housing estates in Reading.

“This echoes the remarks I made a year ago in this chamber about the need for decent neighbourhoods, not just decent homes.”

“It’s not just about new kitchens and bathrooms – people want to feel safe where they live and proud of their neighbourhoods.”

Cllr Gareth Epps, Parliamentary Campaigner for Reading East added:

“From Hexham Road to Amersham Road tenants are calling for cleaner, safer estates. This funding is a step in the right direction and we will continue to campaign to ensure Council investment in housing goes where it is needed’

Editor’s Notes:

Contact Cllr Daisy Benson on 0776 615 7857 or Cllr Gareth Epps on 0795 0035 836 for more details.

Last night a Lib Dem amendment was unanimously carried, with Conservative backing, calling for the full financial implications of the Council’s Climate Change Strategy to be annually reviewed. It also called for the progress of the strategy to be examined by the Environment Scrutiny Panel.

The strategy itself talks of the need for carbon dioxide reduction schemes, waste minimisation, and utilising food waste for producing heat and power; all themes the Lib Dems have long been campaigning for.

Cllr Glenn Goodall, Lib Dem environment spokesperson, said:

“Officers have worked hard to produce this impressive strategy which seeks to address the many challenges of climate change.

“But in times of economic uncertainty, it would be so easy to sweep the environmental agenda to one side.

“The Lib Dem proposal ensures cross-party commitment to continual funding.

“This strategy should be the first port of call for the Council when considering the impact of future policies, no matter the subject.”

Cllr Gareth Epps, Lib Dem PPC Reading East and Group leader welcomed the strategy:

“In Parliament Lib Dems MPs campaigned to strengthen the Climate Change Act, and succeeded in part in getting Labour Ministers to make targets tougher.

“It’s vitally important in Reading now that we make sure our road out of recession is a green road, and we use every opportunity to create new jobs that help protect the environment.”

Editor’s Notes:

The Council approved the Lib Dem amendment to the Council’s Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan on 27 January.

Please contact Cllr Glenn Goodall for more information on 07967 478 701

The Liberal Democrats on the Council have welcomed the announcement that Cllr Pete Ruhemann, Labour lead councillor for Children’s Services, is to resign after the devastating JAR Report on his department. However, they have criticised the manner of his departure and the personal attacks made by several leading Labour Councillors on their Liberal Democrat and Conservative opponents.

Speaking at the Cabinet meeting of Reading Borough Council, Cllr Gareth Epps, Liberal Democrat Group Leader on the Council, said,

“We welcome the opportunity of moving on, above all for the staff. However graceless, Cllr Ruhemann’s resignation offers that opportunity.

“The Council now needs to make sure the action plan is delivered, and that the staff involved feel supported, listened to and valued. I pay tribute to the way Michael Coughlin as Chief Executive has taken personal charge of implementing the action plan. We want to see the programme of external auditing continued to really make sure these problems are sorted out.”

Responding afterwards to comments by Labour councillors made during the meeting, Cllr Epps said,

“The statements of several Labour councillors at the Cabinet meeting were shameless and bring their office into disrepute. They continue to try and mislead the public rather than taking responsibility for what was a shocking lapse in standards.

“Our single goal throughout has been to ensure the highest possible standards in terms of child protection. We are determined to make sure the children in Reading are as safe as possible. Labour’s attitude on this shows how little they have changed.”

Cllr Kirsten Bayes, Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Education and Children’s Services, said:

“It is a shame that Cllr Ruhemann could not accept responsibility for the staggering decline in performance of the service which happened under his watch”.

Editors’s Note:

It is being claimed by Labour Councillors that there is an inconsistency in the approach to the JAR report in neighbouring Wokingham Borough Council, and in particular that Liberal Democrat Councillors in Wokingham have failed to call for the resignation of the respective Lead Member. In fact, the Lead Member for Children’s Services in Wokingham at the time of the inspection, Cllr Norman Jorgensen, is no longer in his post.

Cllr Gareth Epps, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary campaigner for Reading East, has turned landowner and called for the fight against the environmentally disastrous expansion of Heathrow Airport to be stepped up, following the announcement today (15 January) that the Labour Government has given the go-ahead.

Gareth, who has branded the scheme an ‘environmental disaster’, has been representing residents in Caversham, Woodley and Earley who are already complaining about increased aircraft noise from Heathrow in recent months. He has signed up as a beneficial owner of a plot of land in the middle of the area proposed for compulsory purchase, under a scheme being run by Greenpeace, and is urging local residents to do the same.

Gareth has also demanded that Reading Borough Council joins the “2M” group of local authorities against the scheme, in a formal written question to the Council meeting on 27 January. The question was tabled several months ago in order to guarantee a mini-debate on the issue at the meeting. The Council’s current stated position is one of neutrality to the scheme, following previous questions by the Lib Dems.

Commenting on the Government announcement, Gareth said:-

“The expansion of Heathrow would be an environmental disaster. Today’s announcement rips to shreds any remaining credibility the Labour Government has when it claims it is serious about tackling climate change.

“If this scheme goes ahead, Heathrow would be Britain’s single biggest source of carbon emissions. Thankfully, it is almost certain that any government elected at the General Election will cancel this ludicrous project.

“The message must go out to the people of Reading East: now is the time to step up the campaign against Heathrow expansion. I have signed up – for free – as a landowner of the land that would form part of the runway. Millions of people want to ensure that this white elephant will never be built, and this is just one action they can take by logging onto Greenpeace’s website.

“What Reading and Britain needs – now – is a high-speed rail network, to reduce carbon emissions and help travel within the UK. Tory and Labour Governments have left our country behind the times on this, and even today, only the Liberal Democrats have put forward plans which will actually pay for high speed rail.”

Liberal Democrats today condemned what they called a “devastating catalogue of failings” in Reading’s Children’s Safeguarding (child protection) services in the Joint Area Review (JAR) published today (13 January). They have tabled a series of questions to the next Council meeting (27 January) on the service, and are now calling for the resignation of the Lead Councillor responsible for the service, Cllr Pete Ruhemann (Lab).

The Joint Area Review of Reading Children’s Services Authority Area, conducted by Ofsted during 2008 and published today, revealed:

• “Key child protection assessment and planning processes not being completed within acceptable timescales.”
• “Significant shortcomings in the work of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board [LSCB]“
• “Weak performance management within the local authority’s social care service and the wider partnership.”
• “Personal information on children not being stored in a way that it is easily retrievable.”
• “Poor arrangements for ensuring that social care files are systematically audited.”
• “Poor monitoring and a lack of challenge by the local strategic partnership, the LSCB and elected members”.

The report also outlines a series of failings in other areas of the Childrens’ Services department, including rating services on preventing teenage pregnancy as ‘inadequate’ (the lowest possible rating, and the rating also given to the Safeguarding Children service).

Cllr Kirsten Bayes, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education and Children’s Services on Reading Borough Council said:

“This is a service characterised by fundamental failures and worsening performance under Labour. The report describes a service failing to meet its own timescales, with its documentation all over the place, where management guidance and audit were severely lacking. It is simply unacceptable.”

“Most damning of all was the clear view of Ofsted that the child protection service had failed to implement key actions from the latest serious case review and that the review itself was inadequate. There really was nothing to stop that terrible case happening again.”

Cllr Gareth Epps, Liberal Democrat leader on the Council said, “This devastating catalogue of failings is a damning indictment of Labour in Reading. Performance has fallen and the level of risk for our most vulnerable children is now so high that further radical action must be taken – now.

“We want to see constant monitoring of the action plan, and we will not hesitate to call for further fundamental changes unless there is clear and sustained improvement. There must not be another case like that of Trae-Bleu Layne.

“We will hold Labour firmly to account for putting Reading’s children at risk. Cllr Pete Ruhemann is responsible as Lead Councillor for this mess, and the lack of effective scrutiny highlighted in the report is his. For those reasons, he must go – and go now.”

Reading Lib Dems have condemned today’s inflation busting increases in rail fares and criticised the government’s lack of control of rail fares.

Spokesperson Cllr Ricky Duveen (himself a commuter to London) said, ‘I am disgusted that train operators like First Great Western can be allowed to push up fares at double the rate of inflation. The Labour Government has shown itself, once again, to be toothless in regulating private sector companies.’

‘A 6% increase on an annual season ticket to London means an extra £240 that commuters need to find in an increasingly bleak economic outlook.’

‘I rang this morning to enquire about the cost of a new season ticket to London (including the Underground) and was quoted £4,152. This is outrageous. How does this government hope to get more commuters to leave their cars and use public transport instead with these prices which are far and away the most expensive commuter fares in Europe.’

‘A lot of Reading commuters will be very angry when they next go to renew their season tickets.’