How can this Labour government seriously consider pushing ahead with devolution plans for Cheshire and Warrington after it has called out two of the three councils for serious failings?
The situation is so bad at Cheshire East and Warrington that ministerial envoys are being sent in to help turn around the organisations.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government issued Labour-led Cheshire East Council with a Best Value Notice, a formal warning it must improve. Government says there are significant concerns about the council’s financial sustainability and medium-term financial strategy; as well as concerns over leadership capacity, governance, scrutiny and culture as identified in external reports.
Warrington failed an inspection (conducted after the authority received the same notice last year from the previous Conservative government) following concerns over various property investments and business ventures funded by £1.9bn of borrowing. As well as its approach to high-risk borrowing, its catalogue of failures also included leadership, culture and governance. Things were deemed so bad at Warrington inspectors wanted commissioners brought in to run the council, something government has ignored.
You would expect given the seriousness of failings at these councils devolution plans for our area would have been cancelled, or at the very least paused.
But no. Plans to create a combined authority for Cheshire and Warrington led by an elected mayor, are firmly still on the table.
Now more than ever alarm bells should be ringing.
The three councils; Cheshire East Council, Cheshire West and Chester, and Warrington Councils would remain and run their own services, but the new authority would manage additional budgets, money that is currently allocated directly from Whitehall. There will inevitably be some level of cross over between the organisations as someone senior from each council will sit on the new board, so any arguments it is a new body and independent from the failings is not strictly true.
Right now, the priority must be ensuring councils deliver for local residents. I want to see basic maintenance and repairs carried out, whether on roads, street furniture or tree pruning - these just aren’t happening; along with the covert reduction in services whether waste collection, library services or increasing parking changes – the councils need to get their own ducks in a row before adding something else into the mix.
I’ve long opposed the devolution deal; and recent events have only strengthened that view. As I’ve said before – if the answer is another layer of costly bureaucracy and more politicians, then you’re asking the wrong question. It’s time to stop this Cheshire Devolution deal which will just see more money wasted and more delays.
