Viewpoint: Should Maidenhead MP stop serving as a councillor?

Reynolds should follow Newbury MP’s example

When is our double (former triple) jobbing Local Champion MP going to follow the example of his Berkshire colleague, Lee Dillon, Lib Dem MP for Newbury?

The latter announced on March 6, 2025 he was standing down from his councillor roles on West Berkshire Council and Thatcham Town Council.

A quick look at Mr Reynolds attendance as councillor for the Furze Platt ward since his ‘elevation’ to Westminster in July 2024 is illuminating.

No longer is he encumbered with other council committee roles or other (paid) RBWM representational roles.

In fact, he is now ‘saddled’ with turning up every two months for the full council meeting.

But guess what? He’s only managed three out of five council meetings since the General Election.

And no doubt he will be claiming his full councillor allowance for this exemplary attendance record.

One is left wondering what Mr Reynolds is using his RBWM income for.

Is it being treated as a ‘cash cow’ to subsidise the incessant blizzard of Lib Dem political party leaflets and newsletters which have been dropping unsolicited through my front door, extolling the minutiae of The Local Champion’s (i.e. as MP) daily activities?

It’s time this hypocritical double job farce came to an end once and for all.

RICHARD WORRALL

Godayn Grove

Maidenhead

‘Tackling cost of living’ while backing tax hike

In his latest newsletter Joshua Reynolds says that ‘tackling the cost of living crisis’ is one of his priorities.

Why then did he support the attempt by RBWM to raise council tax by an eye watering 25 per cent?

Perhaps it is time he gave up being a councillor and started to hold the improvident council to account?

However this may prove difficult as he employs RBWM’s part time leader as his Chief of Staff!

RICHARD KELLAWAY

Startins Lane

Cookham Dean

Cameron called for EU expansion to the Urals

In George Orwell's book ‘1984’ one of the apparently paradoxical slogans fed to the masses was ‘War is peace’; something similar can be found in real life by Googling for ‘European Peace Facility’, where the official EU entry moves straight from its establishment in March 2021 to EU military support for Ukraine a year later.

How have we got into this ghastly position where the EU and the US, conjoined through NATO, have been fighting a proxy war against Russia, with casualties piling up on both sides, and now with a new US President withdrawing support for the further eastwards expansion of NATO and the EU into what was part of the Soviet Union?

Well, it may be recollected that in 2013 Tory Prime Minister David Cameron called for the EU to extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains, and he was in fact echoing a call made by his predecessor John Major at the time of the Maastricht Treaty; did they know what that meant, or were they a bit vague on the geography?

For the EU to extend to the Urals would require Russia to be broken up, with the quarter of its land west of the mountain range incorporated into the EU but the three quarters east of the mountains outside the EU: did they really think that the Russians would not notice their hostile intention, and take all necessary steps to frustrate it?

Dr D R COOPER

Belmont Park Avenue

Maidenhead

My energy and efforts are more use in Ukraine

I am sure everyone in RBWM and the free world shares the dreams of Viktoriia and Ivanna that one day they ‘will get that life back’.

This is a wish that almost every Ukrainian I have ever met, or spoken to, has wanted – to return to Ukraine.

A sovereign state that was illegally occupied by a country whose president harbours a desire to return to the days of the USSR by progressively invading his neighbours.

Having just discovered that I am a ‘baby boomer’ (just) and we are keeping this country going, when one in four of Generation Z want to give up work and seem to be unable to exist without having everything delivered by Amazon, DPD, Evri, (if you are lucky!) Deliveroo or Just Eat, I have decided to exit the UK before Rachel Thieves takes away what I still have left of my income and assets!

Ukraine is where I am heading, having met a masseuse on a cruise, some 15 years ago with my late wife, who has returned to Odessa and opened up her own business, somehow amid the chaos and turmoil.

Medecins sans Frontieres are always keen to take on new volunteers and my feeling is that my energy and efforts would be much more useful there.

For more than 50 years, Alistair Cooke had a BBC radio programme called Letter from America, so maybe (if ED agrees) I could grace these columns with a similar offering from Ukraine!

Wonderful poem Jay Flynn (Viewpoint, March 14) - I cannot imagine who you mean!

MERVYN BUSTON

East Road

Maidenhead

Council must act to deal with problem parking

As a resident living close to the Maidenhead Mosque I have to raise a concern, regarding constant parking / traffic woes created by people going to Friday prayers (each Friday around 12pm – 1pm).

The nearby streets get completely choked with cars dumped (it’s hard to call it parking) all over the place, on double yellow lines, blocking driveways, creating massive traffic queues.

This also happens on other local / residential roads and streets, like the Kidwells Close cul-de-sac, with cars parked all over pavements, making it difficult for residents to drive in and out.

I literally narrowly avoided head on collisions on several occasions while trying to leave Kidwells Close (where I live) during Friday afternoons (between 12pm – 1pm).

Today I went for a walk in that time, and the scenes I witnessed in Kidwells Close, Kennet Road etc, were absolutely shocking.

To make it worse – I witnessed local traffic/parking wardens, being present and not a single parking ticket issued, even to cars blatantly parked on double yellow lines on the grass.

You can have a look yourself at the attached photo (see below).

I have reported this to the council on numerous occasions, yet nothing is changing.

Perhaps – if the council actually enforced their parking rules, they wouldn’t need to raise the council tax by 25 per cent! I’m sorry but this has to end.

There is a perfectly fine multi-storey car park at Sainsbury’s with enough spaces to allow all the worshippers to park there.

The fact that the wardens were actually there, yet I haven’t seen a single parking ticket being issued is just shocking.

I can’t wait to see what this will look like, when people move in to the new buildings at the old Magnet site!

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED