Covid has been the main issue in 2020 for Wokingham Borough Council. Our response was in the following main areas.
- We formed an alliance with the voluntary sector to provide community support. Our partners at the CAB, The Link, The Wokingham volunteer centre and first days were key in supporting our community. James and Gerry volunteered several times in the food delivery hub and could be seen delivering across the borough.
- WBC made regular welfare phone calls to all families known to adults and children's services to check on their needs and conditions. This totalled 4500 phone calls on a weekly basis.
We formed a care homes task force to help protect our 52 care homes. This group visited all care homes regularly checking PPE, hygiene standards and managing outbreaks when they took place.
Housing has also been a key issue. The planning white paper proposed that the Wokingham housing target was doubled to a figure of 1600 houses per year. A strong campaign by our leader ( which was supported by James ) had seen this reduced by more than 50%.
Highways and congestion remain a pressing issue for our residents. We are shortly to become the first borough council in the UK to launch intelligent traffic management across our key road network.
Our food waste recycling scheme has been very successful with residents. We now have the highest recycling rate in Berkshire and we are planning further steps to improve on this going forwards.
Our finances have been hard pressed with the covid response. However careful financial rebuilding will see us enter 2021 with the same level of reserves as January 2020.
We declared a climate emergency in 2019 and are now advancing plans for a green bank, solar farm and other measures.
We would like to thank James for his wholehearted support to Finchampstead and Wokingham Without during 2020.
