Become The First To Know

by Joe Barker (@Joe_Barker1)

Reading Labour is currently selecting candidates to fight against Rob Wilson (Reading East) and Alok Sharma (Reading West) at the next general election. Reading Young Labour made our endorsements at our last meeting (12th October) and now we wait to find out who is going to be shortlisted.

The good news is that Young Labour members applied for both seats and there are Reading Young Labour members on both the selection panels, something that shows just how important young people have become both within the Labour Party and locally here in Reading.

Reading Labour has launched a new monthly e-newsletter (the first one should be going out in a few weeks) and you can sign up here to Become The First To Know

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Opinion: Tory “Omnishambles” Extends To Reading

by
Duncan Bruce (@duncanqbruce)

Last night myself and a few other Reading Young Labour members decided to attend the Full Council meeting at which the decision on the Civic Centre would be taken. On paper it seemed like it may be a controversial decision, after all, as Councillor's on all sides pointed out, who gets into politics to decide which £60m pound building to move to? However the arguments were presented well and I would say the key issue on which the decision was made was value for the taxpayer.

The three options presented were:

A) Remain at the Civic Centre
This option was the most costly at £93m. The Civic Centre is riddled with asbestos and due to its design no longer fits the requirements of the council. To remain in the Civic Centre would require major work as well as continued expensive upkeep. The Councillors were also informed that even if the building was refurbished it would not have full disabled access.
B) Move to the RG2 Building (Yell Building)
This option would cost £64.4m. Buying the RG2 building would cost £29.3m with annual costs of £3.6m over 25 years. RG2 would also need a great deal of refurbishment prior to council staff being able to move in. The borough would own the freehold of this option after the 25 year period.
C) Move to the Plaza West Building
This option would cost £59.6m. Purchase of the Plaza West building would cost £25.4m and would have an annual running cost of £3.17m, which includes £1.75m of repayments. The building has the advantage of having disabled access as well as the opportunity to open a nursery/creche for staff members. The borough would own the freehold of this option after the 25 year period.


The Labour Party, The Liberal Democrat Party, The Green Party and Cllr Mark Ralph who sits as an independent, supported a move to the Plaza West Building. It represented a far better option both in terms of value (Cheaper to buy, cheaper to upkeep) and in long term needs (Can take more staff than the RG2 building, Once the council own the freehold of the property the value for Plaza West would be higher, representing a better investment of taxpayer's money).

No party supported staying in the Civic Centre although The Green Party did indicate it would be their preferred choice had the cost not been so high. The Labour Group also proposed that the old Civic Centre would be knocked down to make way for the area to be regenerated, and in doing so support both the Broad Street Mall and the Hexagon. Cllr Jo Lovelock also indicated that the Council had been working to facilitate the movement of the Civic Centre Post Office into the Broad Street Mall (which is by far the most popular reason to visit the Civic) so as not to reduce footfall in the Mall.

However as with everything the Tories decided to show up unprepared and rather that talk about the issues of moving and what impact it may have, they decided to play politics with an attempt to pass this amendment:

1. Deplores Labour's public statement of a decision in favour of Plaza West in advance of tonight's Council debate and
2. Calls for the Labour Group to apologise to the people of Reading for their arrogance and the traducing of the cross-party democratic process, which had existed through the Civic Board
3. Notes the comments of a Labour Cabinet members that "when in power you can do what you like".

Unsurprisingly the amendment was viewed as childish and voted down, the Tories gaining no support from any party. It was probably at that point that myself and my Reading Young Labour colleagues realised that instead of trying to create debate or propose an alternative they simply wanted to play opposition politics. The Labour Party, The Liberal Democrat Party, The Green Party and Cllr Ralph ignored the comments of the Tories and moved onto the serious matter, with Cllr Daisy Benson proposing an amendment which was happily received by all parties (not the Tories) calling on proper scrutiny to be in place so that Councillors can be kept a breast and Cllr Ralph (Former Tory) speaking in favour saying that the Plaza West option represented the best value for the Taxpayer and that was very important in his decision making. We then proceeded to the final vote with The Labour Party, The Liberal Democrat Party, The Green Party and Cllr Mark Ralph all voting in favour of the move. The Tories abstained, refusing to vote, with Cllr Richard Willis commenting that the Tories would have supported the move but instead weren't going to because Labour had announced they supported Plaza West before the meeting.

As several people have said to me since, the move by the Tories was the wrong one to make. When it came to making a decision they were absent, and move importantly the voters in their wards who elected them were left without a voice. And, as Matthew Dent pointed out to me afterwards, wouldn't it be interesting if Labour (who are in opposition nationally) simply said they were not going to vote or take part because the Tories have announced a preference towards something before hand?

Clearly the Tory coined word "Omnishambles" has begun to spread...

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Analysis: Reading Local Elections 2012

by
Will Cross (@WillCross61)

There were a lot of really good results for Reading Labour in this month's council elections, in which we regained majority control of the council. Labour replicated the successes of the previous year by winning Redlands, Church and Katesgrove wards, the latter seeing the Liberal Democrat vote collapse to the extent that they nearly came third to the Tories.

But as well as winning those target seats, Labour also succeeded in wards which had not been the focus of central Reading Labour campaigning. In Kentwood ward, Daya Pal Singh managed to win on his third attempt, and in Caversham ward, Richard Davies managed to beat the incumbent Tory with almost 50% of the vote. I'm particularly proud of the Caversham result, as the activists for the campaign were almost entirely Reading Young Labour members, and we achieved the best swing to Labour of the night (13.1% compared with the Borough-wide average of 5.7%). In 2010 Labour came third with under a quarter of the vote, which we have now doubled.

Labour managed to increase its vote in every ward it won in 2011, with Norcot becoming Labour's safest ward with 68.8% of the vote. It's interesting to compare Norcot now to as it was in 2008 (the last time a local election has taken place without a general election/referendum also taking place), since then there has been a huge 17.5% swing to Labour from the Conservatives.

While Labour is very pleased with the results, Tory MP Rob Wilson must be bitterly disappointed; out of the 11 wards up for election in his constituency, his party won only three (Thames ward, which saw a drop in Tory vote of 9.7%, Mapledurham, which saw a swing against Isobel Ballsdon, and Peppard ward which had a huge 23.8% swing against the Conservatives due to Jamie Chowdhary standing as an independent - you can find more details of the issues in that ward by clicking here). As well as only managing to win Thames, Mapledurham and Peppard, Rob Wilson and his team were crushed by the Liberal Democrats in Woodley who managed to win in the seats they had lost to the Tories in 2011.

In Reading West the Conservatives also suffered badly with the Tories being pushed out the Borough, failing to hold or gain any seats.

Naturally it would be foolish to suggest that these results will mean Labour will necessarily gain the parliamentary seats in Reading, but the results do suggest the Tories will be in for a tough fight, and I know myself, Reading Young Labour and Reading Labour Party will be taking that fight to them.

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Opinion: So Whats Reading Young Labour All About?

by
Richard Wood (@richard28wood)

Founded in 2010, Reading Young Labour was set up to be the youth wing of the Reading Labour party taking in all people under the age of 31 in the two CLPs.  We aim to promote young people and their interests in the party and council while also representing Labour to young people in the wider electorate.  We also set clear aims, to be a strong voice for young people in the Labour movement, to be a campaigning machine that engages with the public in new and effective ways and to promote young people to officer roles and elected office. We do this alongside Reading Labour Students but they include students in Reading who normally live outside Reading's two CLPs.  Ian Stevens is the current Chair of RYL, Will Cross is the Vice-Chair and I'm the newly elected Secretary.

As young people in the party we use Young Labour to engage with people like us who have a passion for the Labour movement and who look to the party to promote our views and interests.  To a young person, agendas, AMMs, ECs and minutes can all sound a bit too much, Young Labour is there to ease young people into the party and support them. Rather than formal meetings we have informal socials and occasional discussions which have no minutes or agendas to provide a relaxed atmosphere where young people can take about Labour and other issues. In turn we use our influence in our branches, the AMM and our seat on the EC to try and influence the party on issues important to us. A founding target of RYL is also to encourage wards to endorse young people as candidate, as only a demographically representative Council group can truly stand up for young people, something we hope to start achieving in 2014.

We also put campaigning as an important pillar of our organisation, it's what we enjoy after all, why should the party take us seriously if we don't pull our weight? A recent get-together of our members voted to set wards including Park and Church as our priority wards, valuing Park's endorsement of Rachael Chrisp (aged 28), while Church includes the University and is a marginal seat. In these seats we will show young people we are a campaigning force to be reckoned with, producing literature for young people, leading youth campaigns and joining in canvasses. We are also encouraging young members to help in their own wards when needed.  We pride ourselves in our innovative campaign ideas and feel our presence has already been influential in the campaigns of 2011 and on-going 2012 campaign.

We hope over the coming years we continue to be an effective voice of young people in the party, and that our campaign activities continue to help elect Labour councillors, win overall control on the council and to win back Members of Parliament. Young people are returning to Labour, their natural home, when we set up Reading Young Labour we had 56 members today we have over 150, let's hope this continues and young people are given a strong voice in this party and in Reading.

(Note: This blog was originally produced as part of our guest blog series on Cllr Sarah Hacker's blog http://www.cllrsarahhacker.blogspot.com)

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Opinion: The Green Council Tax Rise - Wrong For Reading, Wrong For Park

by
Rachael Chrisp (@rchrisp)

One of the main stories of last month's budget in Reading was the Greens' proposal to raise council tax by 3.5% (around £40 each), arguing that the extra money this would raise could be spent on funding for vulnerable people.  In the end, Labour secured a cross-party agreement with the other groups, and passed its budget, securing a freeze in council tax for the next year.  Reading has been faced with a huge cut in central government funding but Labour has managed to protect almost all front line services, while restructuring the council to save hundreds of thousands of pounds, such as abolishing the chief executive position or removing backroom inefficiencies. This is something I as a Labour member am proud of.

The Greens' budget amendment to rise Council Tax 3.5% offered no specifics, no suggestion of what new services would be funded or created, simply referring to "vulnerable people". This for me is gesture politics of the highest level, there are vulnerable people that need help and Labour has worked incredibly hard to protect them, reducing Daycare costs, restoring bus passes before 9am for the disabled and their carers and increasing the number of beds for the homeless; for the Greens to simply stroll into a budget making council meeting and present an amendment with no plan of what it will do, where the money will be spent or what impact it will have was poor, they knew that without a coherent plan the other parties wouldn't vote for it but they didn't care because they simply wanted a headline for their next newsletter.  Labour has prioritised the funding of services that help vulnerable people, without having to resort to raising the council tax. Had Labour accepted the Greens' amendment, the council would have lost the government's £1.7 million freeze grant, and out of the extra £2.4 million in council tax would only have kept £700 thousand of it to spend in Reading.

To put this into perspective:

• Out of the £40 per household tax rise, £30 would go straight to central government, leaving only £10 for Reading
• Labour is protecting services by restructuring the council, not by raising taxes.
• The Greens' amendment was presented without any detail, no details of what services it would fund of what the impact it would have, it was just gesture politics.

When Labour regained minority control of the council the Greens told everyone that they would hold the balance of power and be able to get the best deal for Park ward residents - a year on I see very little evidence of this. The Greens have resorted to gesture politics, you can see this in their lack of coherent vision for Reading, for example in Park ward the Greens are campaigning to have the Cemetery opened up to make it a walkthrough (at a cost of £10,000 I should add), whereas in Caversham the Greens are campaigning against the amount of cyclists that ride through a local cemetery, saying it shouldn't be used a shortcut.

My party is making the tough decisions in a fair way that is right for Reading, the Greens may believe that it's fair to ask everyone to pay an extra £40 per year in council tax, but I know for a lot of families that's a weekly shopping trip and in this economic climate people can't afford to be £40 out of pocket - I hope that at the local elections the voters of Park ward choose to elect a Labour councillor to stand up for Park in a Labour-controlled council.

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Opinion: The Labour Difference In Reading

by Cllr Rachel Eden (@racheleden)

Last night we took more than 10% - 12.6 MILLION out of the council's budget. That followed on from the previous year's cuts of £19 million (according to last year's Conservative press release), so decisions were always going to be painful - We might have expected so unpalatable decisions and the opposition groups lining up to attack our budget, that's what happened last year with a budget which was described as 'cutting everything but the grass'.

Instead I woke up this morning to hear that according to BBC Berkshire, we and Labour-controlled Slough had frozen council tax, protected frontline services through back office savings and made 'the usual' increases in other fees. What a contrast to the Conservative-run councils that surround us.

In fact I was shocked that the most contentious issue of the debate appeared to be a disagreement between the two smallest parties about whether or not an extra dog warden would solve the issue of dog fouling.

So what is the Labour difference?

The Conservatives believe that 'Conservative polices are working' - tell that to the library users in Tory-run Oxfordshire, elderly people in West Berkshire, or young people in Bracknell (and don't get me started on Wokingham). The whole group spent their speeches talking about what dull accountants like me think of as the 'top half' of the budget - the income, how pleased they were that council tax was being frozen and that purely based on that they would support our budget. Well yes, your income matters but it also matters what you do with that money, last year's Conservative budget and the Conservative budgets from around the 'Royal County' and elsewhere showed what happens if you just look at the top half and the kind of decisions you end up with. Labour in contrast has agonised about each and every cost and saving - working together as a cabinet to protect services.

The LibDems showed what they like to think of as 'flexibility' and voted with 'any party' that would give them a small item off their wish list, in this case oddly enough a key request was a reversal of their own previous year's cut in the graffiti team! I think it's clear that the LibDems are increasingly an irrelevance in Reading and hardly work the effort of voting for, if you want a champion for your local area or a real say in how decision are taken it's got to be Labour.

The Greens proposed we increase council tax by approximately £45 for the average household only to hand over about £30 of it the government for no benefit. They had no particular proposal of what to do with the remaining cash, which would be less that £700,000 when we were saving £12,600,000.  This is gesture politics at its most pointless made more problematic by comments made before the meeting so misleading that the non-partisan Director of Education and Children's services took the unusual step of writing an open letter to him correcting his factual accuracy. The residents of Park ward deserve better than this.

Only Labour is standing up for Reading, keeping our promises (remember the Green bin tax?) and put the needs of our whole community before politics.

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Cllr Rachel Eden is Lead Councillor for Housing and Neighbourhoods on Reading Borough Council. This blog post was re-produced in an edited form with her permission, if you'd like to read the full blog post please visit http://www.racheleden.blogspot.com

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