Locally elected councillors can make huge difference to the quality of our daily lives.  It’s all too easy to assume that central Government has all the answers when, in reality, our local councillors have a great deal of power to change those things that directly affect us. 

 

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is recognised nationally as a particularly active local council and I am always pleased when they introduce successful local initiatives which solve real problems locally.

 

They’ve achieved a lot in a short space of time.  One cannot help but be impressed by the low level of council tax in our area – the lowest in the country with the exception of a handful of London Boroughs.  They’ve opened up the Council to inspection like never before by publishing online every item of expenditure above £500.  They have fought with me to keep the fire station open.  They have recently enabled parking ticket purchasing through your mobile phone.  And, counter-intuitively in a world where we are charged for everything, they are actually paying  us to recycle our rubbish.

 

It is no wonder that the Royal Borough has been chosen by the Government as a ‘Vanguard Community’ and recognised as a local authority that is helping to bring the Big Society to life. 

 

Working with our local councillors I am reassured that, given time, it will become natural for us to look to them to improve our quality of life, rather than distant central Government apparatchiks. 

 

With so much good news coming from the constituency, I want to thank our local activists, campaigners and, especially, our local councillors for making some of our hopes a reality in Windsor.  Local planning and parking are often more pressing than vague academic notions of constitutional change.