A REVIEW is to be carried out – including widespread public consultation – to decide if a Warrington council should be abolished.
The parish council at Cuerdley has five seats – but three of them have been vacant since May last year.
As a result, the parish has struggled to deliver its statutory functions – and in September last year, the borough council had to step in and appoint borough councillors from the Penketh and Cuerdley ward as members of the parish council to allow it to discharge its function.
But this was only ever regarded as a temporary measure to give time for the future of the parish council to be considered.
On February 1, Cuerdley had an electorate of just 93 people living in 49 households.
The parish council’s only asset is said to be a notice board.
Measures are in hand for the borough council to ascertain the parish’s current financial situation.
In a report to the borough council’s executive board, assistant chief executive Katherine Fairclough says a parish council should not be abolished unless clearly justified.
By law, the borough must consider local opinion, find evidence that abolition is justified and that there is clear and sustained local support for it.
The borough plans to carry out a community governance review – including extensive public consultation – in April. A questionnaire will be sent to all households and businesses in Cuerdley and neighbouring Penketh Parish Council will also be consulted.
One possible option is to merge Cuerdley Parish Council with Penketh.
The parish council at Cuerdley was set up in the Sixties when the local population was about 200. The parish straddles the Mersey between Warrington and Widnes and there were two polling station for the first-ever election, with ballot boxes from one being taken on a 25-mile round trip to be counted in the kitchen of a local council house!
A REVIEW is to be carried out - including widespread public consultation
- to decide if a Warrington council should be abolished.
Should council be abolished?
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About Author
Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
6 Comments
For one wonderful moment I thought it meant, “Should Warrington Council be abolished”.
same here, it was a wonderful couple of seconds….
Would you really want everything run by and decided by national government departments ,unaccountable quangos or private businesses – whose main, or only priority, would be the interests of their shareholders?
Like most other Warringtonians I want a council which is effectively led by elected members who are honest, trustworthy, open and transparent, who are not secretive, and don’t play fast and loose with the people who put them into power to look after our collective interests. But I suppose that is expecting too much in this day and age when no one in government (local, national or the NHS) is prepared to stand up and take responsibility for their actions.
I’m sure that we all hoped when we saw the headline. Isn’t amazing that we should even think such things. Just goes to show how low the opinion of WBC has got!!
No, but ALL the services round here ran better and more efficiently before Lymm Urban District Council was abolished and our (and other) Cheshire villages got lumped in with a Lancashire town we have next to nothing in common with. At least in those days we knew who the Council Clerk of Works was and could give him hell when we saw him in the local pub if things weren’t working right!