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Theresadate May tops MPs vote in race forVICTORY Number 10 GRASSGATE Start for Elms Field revealed
‘We didn’t cut the grass and Third Thames bridge to we’re sorry’ start in business park MAIDENHEAD MP and Home Secretary Theresa May has sailed through the second round of leadership voting, picking up 199 nods from her fellow Conservative MPs, writes Gemma Davidson. Mrs May, whose constituency covers Sonning, Wargrave, Charvil, Twyford and Hurst, picked up more than her rivals, Andrea
Leadsom and Michael Gove, put together. She will now face Andrea Leadsom, who picked up 84 votes, in the final push for the keys to Number 10, while Michael Gove was eliminated with 46 votes. She was supported by local MPs Rob Wilson and Dr Phillip Lee. Speaking immediately after the
result of the vote Mrs May said: “This vote shows the Conservative party can come together and under my leadership it will.” Her comments received applause from supporters outside the House of Commons. The results of the ballot means that the United Kingdom will definitely have its second female
Prime Minister, 26 years after Margaret Thatcher stood down in 1990. The leadership battle will now move into its final stage, with 150,000 Conservative Party members deciding between Mrs May and Mrs Leadsom. The result is expected to be announced in September 9.
Friday,July July29, 8, 2016 No. 64 Friday, 67
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WORK on one of the most controversial aspects of Wokingham’s regeneration now has a start date. At Council last week, Cllr Mark Ashwell revealed the timetable for the new Elms Field. The project will see a cinema, supermarket and hotel built on part of the field, with a new park on the other. n Full story page 5
MP publishesBut Tories fail in bid to water down Pooches to a statement of regret report on new apology river crossingEXCLUSIVEplay at Council unites fun day against hate crime By PHIL CREIGHTON news@wokinghampaper.co.uk
By GEMMA DAVIDSON gdavidson@wokinghampaper.co.uk
WOKINGHAM Borough Council has agreed to apologise to you over grassgate but only after its appeal to water it AN AMBITIOUS project to create a third bridge–across the River Thames has taken a step forward thisdown week,to an admission of a poor start was rejected. with a possible location of the bridge being revealed. At a council meeting last Thursday, The 109-page Third Thames Crossing Appraisal Liberal Democrats called on the Council Report, which was published by MP for Reading pass a motion that included “an “WHOEVER you are, wherever East Rob Wilson, outlines theyou details of the totraffic apology came from,work whatever colour of for your modelling beingthe undertaken the project, led for the poor implementation of the contract” that saw grass grow to skin or the nature of yourCouncil religion, as by Wokingham Borough (WBC). record long as report you obey the law,how respect your The explains the modelling has beenheights across the borough. neighbour to work hard and covering They far wider and thanwant previously expected, the also called on the councillor responsible – Cllr Angus Ross – to resign. get on, this borough will always entirety of South Oxfordshire inbe the north, to the M3 But, the Conservatives submitted open you.” spanning out to the A34 near Newbury in thetosouth, That’s by council in the westthe andpledge as far made as the M25 in the east. a revised motion that instead of became “an admission” that leader a specialThames debate Valleyapologising The Keith reportBaker also at highlights Park thenew new grass cutting policy had got last week. in Wokingham as the potential site of the He led calls from a united council and to Caversham bridge, crossing over the Thames do all it couldsetting to stopdown hate near crimethe andA4155 Henley Lakes before xenophobic behaviour in the borough. Road. n Full story page 4 3 Continued on page
agreed that an apology was the best way forward and you can read Cllr Ross’ apology in full on page 17. We have been at the forefront of the campaign to get the grass cut across the borough, something that was constantly acknowledged by councillors in the chamber last week. Our campaign reflected your views over the botched implementation of the new flexible grass cutting contract, which was meant to introduce wild flower havens to the borough as well as quickly attending to areas that needed urgent cutting. But it didn’t start that way and residents have been left fuming by tall grass growing everywhere, obscuring road signs and spoiling children’s play areas. n Continued on page 5
Animal rescue off to a bad start and promised that Cllr Angus Ross, the executive member for centre environment for Wokingham Borough Council, would provide a written welcomes explanation for The Wokingham Paper. After a lengthy debate, councillors visitors p20-21 READ THE COUNCIL’S APOLOGY ON P17
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