SOLVE Politics

How many times in recent days, months or even years have you sighed in despair at the parlous state of politics in this country? Would you like to see a less divisive system than the existing, highly adversarial party political system? Is there a solution?

The clue to the solution may well be in the name: PARTY politics. How many times have we seen people with good intentions forced to compromise their ideals in order to toe the party line? Here is an example:

How much did Clive Jones (Lib Dem, 2nd from right) or Anthony Pollock (Conservative, 2nd from left) really believe in our campaign against the imposition of 4,500 houses at Hall Farm? The fact remains that the real support for our campaign has consistently come from Cllrs Jim Frewin (Independent, Left of photo) and Gary Cowan (Independent, present at the demo but not present for this photo).

When we recently delivered our petition to Shute End, signed by over 1,800 people, calling for a debate on the building of houses at Hall Farm the now Leader of Wokingham Executive; Clive Jones was happy to receive it. However, we are now told we are not going to be allowed to debate it. We have made clear our dissatisfaction with this decision and an excellent letter has now been published in Wokingham Today, summing up our feelings about this very eloquently.

It has consistently been the case that the two Independent Councillors in Wokingham are the only ones publicly supporting our campaign to say NO to 4,500 houses at Hall Farm. Warm words and platitudes just won't cut it any more, say no means SAY NO!

Yes, the current administration are talking to the UK Government about reducing housing numbers, but the threat to our precious green spaces remains and is getting worse, with new proposals for more houses springing up in every ward across the Borough.

There are currently 18 Borough Councillors up for re-election in May 2023. We have taken a very close look at them and we think there are at least 8 wards that are potentially winnable by an independent candidate:

· Barkham

· Loddon

· Maiden Erleigh

· Norreys

· Shinfield North

· South Lake

· Wescott

· Wokingham Without.

Your thoughts and comments are invited.