Home for new Cheshire council will be top of agenda

May 21 2008 by Sue McCann, Neston News

AN HISTORIC meeting in the life of local government in Cheshire was held last week at Chester Town Hall when members of Shadow Authority for Cheshire West and Chester Council confirmed appointments to its executive and other key posts.

The Conservative-led administration, elected on May 1, will not take on full responsibilities until April 1 next year but has its work cut out over the coming months as it oversees the transition of Cheshire County, Chester City , Ellesmere Port and Neston and Vale Royal councils’ services into the new unitary authority.

The 72 councillors representing Cheshire West and Chester will be responsible for planning, refuse collection, education, libraries, highways, children’s services, council tax, social services and the environment among other services.

Shadow leader, Cllr Mike Jones said: “This is an exciting opportunity to create a new council that will be innovative in its approach to delivering quality services to all our residents and visitors in an efficient and effective way.”

The shadow authority will set the 2009/10 budget in early spring, but the constituency roles of the new councillors will be restricted, until April 1, to matters relating to the setting up of the new authority.

Near the top of the agenda will be options for the new council’s headquarters location to be considered in June, while a new chief executive is due to be appointed this summer to help guide the transition. The government has made it clear that the costs of transition must not increase council tax.

Shadow Council meetings will rotate around the office buildings currently used by the city, borough and county councils.

Meanwhile the county and district councils will continue to provide local services to residents until April 1, 2009.