This week's in my view comes from... Liberal Democrats councillor Lindsay Ferris, leader of the opposition at Wokingham Borough Council

Whilst Sir John Redwood is not my MP, he was when Twyford was part of the Wokingham constituency a number of years ago. I have only met him once, as a constituent, when a colleague and I saw him about the poor funding and poor state of our local schools. To give him his due he did see us for nearly 30 minutes and we both thought he listened to us. It is funny how some 20 years later our local schools remain one of the poorest funded in the country.

There is one issue I do agree with him about. I remember him mentioning income tax levels should be more linear rather than what we have at present. However this is about the only thing I agree with him.

One of my greatest concerns is the message I have received from a number of local residents who have stated that he (Sir John Redwood) has not been interested in the issues they have, often referring them to the council, or another body. They have said they feel he is not interested, or listening. If half of what I have been told is true then this is very disappointing and local residents expect more from him.

Recently the council consulted on housing numbers. The response was overwhelmingly of the view that the number of homes being pushed onto Wokingham Borough is far too high. This consultation was cross-party and local councillors are worried about this volume of homes. We certainly do need homes here, truly affordable homes to enable our local children to live here, plus we need bungalows to enable older people to downsize and to remain living locally. However with the volume being proposed our area will be changed, and once lost will be lost forever. We feel that we have to stand and fight, before it is too late and we become nothing more than inner & outer suburbia. On this vital topic I have heard almost nothing from him. Why? The Council desperately needs the help of its MPs to keep this number of homes in check. The leader of the council and I recently met to discuss how we moved forward following the consultation. I have to say we were a bit despondent.

If nothing is done we will have years of gridlock, disturbance and the loss of our green areas across the borough. So much for global climate change and our desire to be carbon neutral by 2030. However, I think I know why he has been silent, he is a climate change denier! There is no point building all these houses, if the reason people want to live here has been destroyed! We have to fight to protect our area for the future.

We also have problems with how developers abuse the planning system, e.g. multiple planning applications on the same site, or 5 year land supply issues, again this is an area we need urgent support from our MPs, but alas this is another area I have heard next to nothing from the MP.