Carrying on Paul's good work

by Cllr Stephen Conway

Thursday is the day of the Winnersh by-election.  It’s happening because Paul Fishwick, the widely respected and well-liked Lib Dem borough councillor for the ward, died before Christmas.

Besides being an excellent ward councillor, who helped countless people in Winnersh, Paul was Wokingham Borough Council’s executive member for Active Travel, Transport, and Highways. 

As a former highways engineer, he knew the importance of maintaining the highway network and was frustrated at the way in which successive governments under-invested in our road system.

Paul was also a champion of choice in travel modes, which he believed would reduce pressure on our congested roads.  

He was a keen advocate of active travel – cycling and walking – emphasising the health benefits for those who regularly used their cycles or chose to walk shorter journeys.

He was also keen to promote public transport.  He worked with me on schemes to improve bus access to Twyford station, which will better integrate bus and train travel.

He also recognized the value of pump-priming important bus services with subsidies that enabled them to build up custom until they became commercially viable. 

Paul oversaw the investment of more money by the council in bus subsidies (much of it derived from developer contributions on the back of new housing developments).  He saw bus services not simply as providing a lifeline for those who couldn’t run a car, but also as an alternative means of travel for car-owners, which would help reduce competition for road space and therefore make journeys easier for those who used their cars.

Paul lived long enough to see a vast improvement in the frequency and hours of operation of the 850 bus service in the north of the borough.  The new operator is providing a much-enhanced service and usage figures have shot up.  I have been contacted by many people in my part of the borough who are delighted by the improved service and are using it rather than driving themselves.  

Those of us who served with Paul on the council’s executive and admired his commitment and public spirit, are determined to continue his good work.

We are therefore very pleased that at last week’s meeting of the executive, Paul’s successor, Martin Alder, presented us with a proposal to improve the bus service in the south of the borough.

The executive approved an increase in the frequency of services on route 3, connecting Arborfield, Finchampstead, Barkham and Wokingham Town, from the current hourly service to every thirty minutes.  The change will be introduced under a new contract from May.  

The improvement to the service will be paid for by developer contributions.  It will principally benefit residents in new housing in Arborfield, but it should also help those living in Finchampstead and Barkham.

The evidence of improvements to the 850 service in the north of the borough is that increased custom follows.  A more frequent and more reliable service attracts more passengers.  I look forward to the same happening in the south of the borough on the back of these improvements to the service on route 3.

We all win by increased bus use, as many of those who opt for bus travel will be residents with cars who decide not to use them.  That means there are fewer cars on the road and therefore less congestion.

Initiatives to boost public transport and active travel are sometimes wrongly portrayed as ‘anti-car’.  They are no such thing.  They can improve journey times for car drivers as well as users of public transport.