Restoring Trust in Woking Politics

Politicians today are creating a growing gap between what they say and what they do. The result is an increasing lack of trust in politics.  

“Fide et Diligentia”. This is the motto of Woking Borough Council. It means ‘Faith and Diligence.’ Ironic, given how the Tory-led council have been making decisions. It’s no surprise that politicians are seen as less trustworthy than bankers when they bypass formal processes and obfuscate the findings of independent reports. They insist they want to be transparent but time and again fail to be anything other than opaque.  

The Lib Dem-led Overview and Scrutiny Committee are tasked with holding the Tory-led council executive to account and ensuring the decisions made are in the interests of Woking residents. 

In this episode of the popular Lib Dem podcast series, Adam Kirby and Dale Roberts explore the Lib Dem successes and the challenges they faced when trying to hold the Tory-led council to account.  They analyse how the Lib Dem-led Overview and Scrutiny Committee reviewed a council project, exposed a dubious £250m loan and uncovered governance failures and give their views on how to rebuild trust in politicians. 

They raise 3 important questions: 

1. How many other Tory-led projects have been carried out with such poor governance? 
2. How can we have confidence that we are getting value for money? 
3. Is democracy in Woking under threat from this behaviour? 

 And offer clear solutions that would be actioned by a Lib Dem administration: 

1. Welcome scrutiny and learn lessons from it 
2. Apply the principles of openness, transparency and financial prudence. 
3. Be judged by our actions not our promises. 

Time for change on 6th May – Your Town, Your Future, Your Vote. Vote Lib Dems. 

As always, we really appreciate your thoughts and feedback about the show. You can reach out to us using the email address below, or at our social media. We read all your comments and may include yours in an upcoming episode! Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE, SHARE and FOLLOW us on social media. 

Materials referred to in this podcast are available in links below.    

Woking Borough Council Meeting discussing the implementation of a Scrutiny Report involving, amongst other things, the £250 million loan. 

Independent Inspector’s Report confirming the findings of the Scrutiny Report. 

The WBC Executive Report on the Independent Inspector’s Report 

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