‘Wokingham Borough was created with a desire to remove the inefficiencies of duplication of district and county councils….’ says Cllr Pauline Jorgensen (Wokingham.Today; 20 April 2025). The Borough was formed in 1998, following the abolition of Berkshire County Council. Jorgensen was until recently leader of the Conservative controlled borough. She says local Conservatives want to keep democracy local, and oppose the new Labour government plans to devolve power to councils which she deems unfavourable top-down reorganisation. Fear of duplication of local governance was the concern that Sir John Redwood, Wokingham’s Conservative MP for about thirty years expressed to oppose strategic planning which his party leader David Cameron abolished in 2011.
The reality is that spatially Wokingham is now a mess. Housing has happened haphazardly, and not as part of a dream or a vision. But house prices are still not affordable by young local residents. And the roads are still over-congested. In 1976 I published a report expressing concerns at the town’s weaknesses. One and a half decades later in 1990 I then published a proposal for a new town on the western edge of Wokingham. That suggestion received no support from the local council. Some years later the council themselves conducted a survey of its residents to ask their views about Wokingham’s growth. The majority expressed disappointment. What conclusions can be drawn? There seems to be a high level of local dissatisfaction with local spatial change. The results are not liked. Whose fault is that? I have a remote and distant advantage over Cllr Jorgensen, as a past resident in Lower Earley and as a past worker in Bracknell -I commenced my career there is 1968, I vividly remember unspoilt Wokingham and the charm of Wokingham town centre in those times which I visited often. . So personally I endorse the views of today’s residents about the damage caused to Wokingham by decades of short-sighted leadership. Today’s crucial question is are Cllr Jorgesen’s fears of duplication right? Or does Wokingham’s recent history mean she as short-sighted as her predecessor’s. Which is the correct path for Wokingham to follow?
There is another example of lost opportunities. This time in the heart of the West End. London’s mayor Sir Sadiq Khan wants to pedestrianise Oxford Street. And with recently introduced new powers he may do it. Taking the buses and taxis out of it has obvious appeal to users. . But Andrew Boff, who is the Conservative chair of the planning and regeneration committee of the London Assembly is opposed, saying ‘I am deeply concerned this is a power grab from the the mayor to take power from local residents’. Talk of pedestrianisation of Oxford Street started when I was a student in London in the sixties. Doing the obvious it seems is still controversial and still presents practical problems.. We have here in England created widespread spatial mess. The lesson is that prosperity must be managed. That it has consequences was foreseen by very few Are the government plans to build many more new homes in its push for economic growth another threat or a new opportunity? As no-one else can be blamed we must own our own recent post war mess ourselves. It is not a Conservative mess. It is not a Labour mess. It is not a Liberal Democrat mess. It is an English mess. It needs an English solution. The first step is to take political ideology out of local politics and replace it with civic duty. Locally this must mean co-operation not confrontation. It must also mean long term policies must replace short term haphazardry. The existing call for sites system destroys trust in the benefits of long term planning. It must be replaced.
Ian Campbell
24 April 2025
