19/02/2026
Today I was asked to come out to take a look at the state of the roads in Berkeley and Wanswell and I must say, I am astonished at how bad it has got!
Our roads resemble the surface of the moon, and having seen other problems in Cam, something urgently needs to be done. Unfortunately, due to changes in the budget, my local highways budget has been cut by 66% which takes away my ability to choose what I wish to be done in our area where this now takes precedence.
In the budget meeting yesterday, the calls from myself and those in the Reform group to cut wasteful spending on nonsensical Net Zero pledges fell upon deaf ears. We as a county produce just 1% of the countries emissions and as a country, we produce just 1% of worldwide emissions. A minuscule amount of emissions to which our administration wants to throw millions at while Russia and China keep ramping up their emissions. At the same time, they choose to grow our debt by borrowing £15 million which now means the council has borrowed more money compared to the value of its cash assets, a concerning step which risks falling into financial instability, just like the Gloucester City Council is dealing with, also ran by the Liberal Democrats.
It’s disgraceful, and needs to be called out as much. And with the way the council now works with motions at full council, we aren’t able to properly scrutinise through motions until the summer. This is blatantly anti-democratic, and has resulted in the Green Party, the third largest party, having more say in the chamber than the official opposition. What a joke!!
If this road quality is what we can expect from this administration while debts climb, then the unitary elections couldn’t come any quicker.
A massive thank you to the gentlemen who invited me out, I hope I don’t let you down in tackling this mess.
Best wishes,
Cllr Michael Rees - Reform UK
