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Why fix something that wasn't broken?
2:29pm Saturday 17th May 2008
Is it just me? I feel as though I have just woken from a coma. Yesterday I lived in Vale Royal, officially excellent, (a sentiment I totally agree with) and I had councillors who lived near me to fight my corner.
Today I live in the unitary authority of West Cheshire and Chester and have councillors who live in Kingsley and Frodsham - and yes I did vote.
I doubt they know where Well Lane or Sandy Lane or Church Road or any other road is in Weaverham much less care about them.
On the current Vale Royal Borough Council website this is set out as a proposal (version 2) at April 2007 and here we are a year later a done deal.
Yet again something that wasn't broken has been fixed.
The proposal talks of building confidence and empowering local people.
If we are not confident in something that is officially excellent we have a problem and moving my representative miles away from me is hardly empowering.
Where is our new authority going to be based and who are the people who will be running it?
If it's all Chester-based, will the people running the council care as much about the streets of Northwich as Vale Royal Borough Council?
What happened to consultation on such a major issue? This has been pushed through very quickly on a White Paper.
It appears to me that there was more public information available when they changed the speed limit on the A556!
Can anyone fill in the blanks?
CARL TOMMONS Sandy Lane Equestrian Weaverham
Your sayYourNorthwich
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Simon Greaves, Northwich says...
4:04pm Fri 23 May 08
Our council is now free from any accountability and most councillors will be able to act as they please. This is because local democracy died in Cheshire on 1 May 2008. How our ancestors must be turning in their graves, as this occurred with barely a flicker from their sons and daughters.
The first past the post voting system is not very good at giving us what we want. The system for our local government election is much worse: Multiple Non-Transferable Vote. Many of us will be very happy that we have a guaranteed Conservative-control
led council, but in the long run is this going to cause problems? Everyone wants the best councillors who have earned their right to represent us, and have a sense of accountability and duty. Unfortunately from now on these qualities may not be necessary. I believe Hazel Blears is largely to blame for this unsatisfactory situation, however all this could be corrected by a simple change to the single-transferable-
vote system. It won't happen because Cheshire people don't care any more. Incinerator for Northwich, bring it on!