Cheshire & Warrington Devolution

Today, it has been announced that the Government have included Cheshire & Warrington in their Devolution Priority Progamme (DPP)

If it goes ahead, this will not result in local auhorities merging. The individual councils (Cheshire West & Chester, Cheshire East & Warrington) would retain their current responsibilities. The Government will launch an eight week consultation programme and say that devolution is about national government transferring powers and resources to local Government. 

My initial response to today's announcement is that it contains lots of words and vague promises. Local and National Government are very good at generating lots of words, but with very few specifics. However, this sounds like the same model as in Greater Manchester, so at least it's tried and tested. I also welcome that there are no plans to merge Councils. Local authorities in Cheshire are big enough already.

Establishing a new Strategic Authority for Cheshire & Warrington will clearly cost money, will they be able to draw down enough extra funds to make it worthwhile? However, one potential positive outcome should be that Councils won't need to waste millions of pounds putting together (often unsuccessful) bids for central Government funding.

We must also scrutinise how democratic the new system will be. Will we have an elected mayor? With massive powers and very little oversight? With the support of fewer than 30% of the people voting?"

As a party, we would love to hear your views, questions or concerns about what devolution means for the future of Cheshire & Warrington. Please e-mail us and let us know.

See cheshireandwarringtondevolution.com for the full announcement