WARRINGTON could be invited to join a pioneering plan linking 10 councils together as a “city region” based on Greater Manchester.
The project would be a pilot for city regions across the UK – but has been thrown into doubt because two Greater Manchester authorities are having second thoughts about joining.
Tory controlled Trafford and Liberal Democrat controlled Stockport both abstained when the 10 councils which 
make up the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) voted on the issue.
The other eight councils voted to press ahead with the deal – but for it to proceed all 10 are required to agree.
Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, has accused Trafford and Stockport of holding the other councils to ransom.
He said one option could be to disband AGMA and proceed with a new city-region partnership with the other eight councils or, possibly, with two other councils from within the Greater Manchester economic area.
He would not be drawn on which councils – but Warrington and St Helens are considered to be “possibles”.
Coun Ian Marks, (pictured) leader of Warrington Borough Council, said: “We are flattered to hear we are possibly being courted by Manchester but our would-be suitor has certainly made no approaches to us.
“Warrington is an Associate member of AGMA and we collaborate with councils there on things like purchasing and efficiency savings.
“Equally we enjoy good relationships with Merseyside authorities especially Halton and St Helens. There are several examples of very productive working relationships in areas such as secondary schools funding, housing and Trading Standards.
“But our energies right now are being spent on working with the two new unitary councils in Cheshire. We have just set up seven new joint commissions, together with the police and fire authorities. This will bring some real focus to the public sector in what is called the sub-region and to our partnerships with the private and voluntary sector. Warrington is taking the lead on this and I chair the leadership board.
“The truth is that Warrington is a successful town, which continues to perform well in economic surveys. For example the national ‘Centre for Cities’ report published in January placed us ninth in the league table for employment and eighth in the table for high earnings. In both these two rankings we were the leading town or city in the whole of the north of England.
“The council is proud to work with anyone who can help create jobs and improve the quality of life for people in the town.”
2 Comments
Is being virtually bankrupt, the yardstick for success?
“ninth in the league table for employment and eighth in the table for high earnings.!!!!???
Well, Mr Marks certainly has a way with words!!!!!…………. In reality, Warrington has a glut of low paid sweat shop jobs , circa 75% of the population earn less than the national average. There are just a mere handful are ‘high earners’ and the gap between rich and poor is one of the widest in the country . Wasn’t the fact that any economic benefits are not distributed throughout the wider population one of the reasons Warrington recently got 3 red flags and the reputation as the Worst Town in Britain?
Instead of shying away from the true facts why can’t Mr Marks and Co join the real world and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING TO “create jobs and improve the quality of life for people in the town.” Or are they waiting for some other council to do it for them?