Opposition blast leader for timing of housing numbers letter

The opposition have lambasted the leader of the council for his letter to the housing secretary trying to roll back the amount of housing – calling it nothing but ‘cynical electioneering’.

Leader Andrew Johnson has submitted a letter asking for ‘flexibility’ to be able to reduce the number of houses allocated to sites earmarked for homes in the BLP.

But despite this being something many residents would like, announcing this move on social media has fetched staunch criticisms from the opposition, who have called it ‘blatant electioneering’.

Councillor Simon Werner, leader of the Lib Dems, and Cllr Lynne Jones, leader of the local independents, have both expressed their fury over the move.

“I think it’s a blatant attempt to con the residents of Windsor and Maidenhead into thinking that Andrew Johnson actually cares,” said Cllr Werner.

“His mantra for the past four years has been build, build, build. We told him time and time again that this isn’t what residents want.

“Now he’s been speaking to people and hearing the whole point of his last four years is really unpopular – and now he’s scared.

“Nobody can keep that manta going and suddenly convert, now elections are coming. It’s absolutely disgraceful.”

Cllr Werner said it was ‘not true’ that the council had not had an opportunity to go to the Secretary of State before now.

“Other councils who they had their allocation negotiated the figure down,” he said.

He added that it would be ‘amazing’ if the letter is successful in its aim – but is not hopeful this will happen.

“My feeling is it’s all a cooked-up election ploy. I don’t think there’s any realty behind it,” he said.

“Some of the planning applications have already been passed – like the West Windsor one just last week. These aren’t going to stop.

“It’s too little, too late.”

Cllr Jones echoed these sentiments, also highlighting that the opposition asked the Borough to review the housing figures years ago.

“They agreed with Government policy completely, because it was Government policy,” she said. “They followed it with no push-back whatsoever.

“[Instead] they pushed back on us [the opposition] every time. We were dismissed out of hand.”

She said the BLP should have been re-examined when the new administration came in.

“It’s taken them until two months before an election to do a complete U-turn. I’m gobsmacked – I really don’t know how they’ve got the gall,” Cllr Jones said.

As for whether any positive change may come out of the letter, she added:

“[The Tories] know that if they lose the election come May, the first thing [the new administration] would do is review the BLP and push back – say it was forced through with wrong data.

“They’re just trying to pre-empt what could happen in May anyway.

“They’re trying to do it quickly – it’s a knee-jerk action rather than doing the proper evidence-based process, and that’s not the proper way to run a council.”