So as of today, we now live in the Borough of Wokingham, after the local council changed it’s name for the third time in five years. The other change is that the Council Chairman is now called the Mayor of Wokingham – a slight confusion with the other Mayor of Wokingham, who is Mayor of Wokingham town only. The Wokingham Borough name is not new though – the name was used up until 1974 when Wokingham Borough, and Wokingham Rural District were brought together to form Wokingham District, which existed under Berkshire County Council, until that was abolished in 1998.

The BBC is mocking the whole name change too, especially as the council is reacting to the many complaints that it is a waste of money by saying that none of the signs will be changed… So why bother?

According to the leader of the Council Frank Browne, it is to get ‘proper’ funding – as if changing the name will have any effect. Sadly, I think he may find that the reduced funding is as much to do with the fact that Wokingham regularly comes high up in quality of life surveys due to the high earnings and above average house prices across the area.

In reality I suspect the name change is as much to do with being called a borough, and having a mayor as any of this stuff over money – just local councillors wanting to make themselves sound important – if they were really concerned about money, they wouldn’t be wasting it on another pointless name change would they? After all, the new name isn’t going to change the people actually running the local authority…