AND breathe. We’re just days away from finishing 2020, which has been a hugely trying, turbulent, and trepidatious year for us all.
Although we’re by no means in the clear with Covid-19, it does seem 2021 will have brighter days than many in the first year of the third decade of the second millennium.
However, while we’ll always remember 2020 as the ‘coronavirus year’ — and only 2020 — there has been a great deal going on aside from the c-word in Cheshire.
In that regard, we’ve picked out some of the bigger non-Covid stories from our borough.
January — Car park fee row
Traditionally, councils approve budgets for the financial year in February — meaning a lot of political wrangling takes place in January over the spending plans.
Some of that is concrete alterations, some of it is theatre. In this case, it was somewhere in between, with Nantwich Cllr Arthur Moran saying it was a ‘blank cheque’ for raising parking charges, which was denied by council chiefs.
February — Gritting cuts
And yet more wrangling continued, with CEC’s new road management system resulting in 247 routes being axed from the gritting timetables — leading Labour Cllr Rob Vernon to say no councillor went ‘into local politics to put the safety of children in our community at risk’.
March — Macclesfield Hospital Trust ‘not sustainable’
The NHS has been under huge strain in 2020, but in Macclesfield that strain has been going on for even longer, according to boss John Wilbraham.
He told councillors that the problems facing many NHS bodies across the UK were exacerbated by the small size of the East Cheshire Trust, so it was ‘not sustainable’ in its current form.
April — Wilmslow High School expansion approved
In the first of many stories on Wilmslow High School, CEC cabinet officials signed off plans to spend £12 million increasing its capacity — in order to tackle an existing 111-place shortfall — as both Wilmslow and Handforth’s populations are expected to grow.
May — Middlewich’s eastern bypass passes hurdle
The long-running battle to get the Middlewich eastern bypass completed cleared a major hurdle in May, with planning permission given to a ‘discharge of conditions’ application for the £58 million project. Councillors from the town welcomed the news ‘cautiously’.
June — Former leader calls for police inquiry
Former CEC leader Michael Jones demanded an independent inquiry into Cheshire Police’s handling of an investigation into his conduct in office.
The police led a four-year probe after allegations surfaced that the council had awarded an £84,000 contract to Corefit, run by then-leader Jones’ physiotherapist Amanda Weston, without due process — leading to his resignation in December 2015.
July — Pavement parking
The council agreed to act on pavement parking — which might not seem like a big issue, but causes no end of problems for those with access needs and help moving around — just as the government announced its major review into the practice, which CEC said it would feed into.
August — First active travel issues
Active travel has dominated the final months of 2020, and the first signs that it would become a saga appeared in late summer.
Councillors in Knutsford urged CEC leadership to axe the town from the schemes, as it was argued that the addition of the selected Ladies Mile route was a ‘mistake’.
September — Fly tipping prosecution rate revealed
An investigation by the LDRS revealed that just two fines were issued for fly tipping last year, with only one being paid. Such was the anger at the scale in town like Crewe, MP Kieran Mullen raised the story in Parliament, urging the government to reform powers on the issue.
October — Missed bin collections
Another waste-themed LDRS investigation revealed that CEC’s missed bin collection trebled in the year it ‘reconfigured’ services, when spending rose by £1 million on the project.
Cllr Laura Crane said ‘the reconfiguration of routes will deliver significant financial and environmental efficiencies’.
November — Crewe HS2 hub moves step closer
The much-feted Crewe HS2 hub moved forward, as CEC cabinet approved a bid to be made for the government’s ‘Towns Fund’ and commission detailed drawings for the new station plan.
However, there was also an admission that the economic hit of Covid-19 meant that the construction would only be completed by the end of the decade.
December — 20mph farce
To finish off the year, councillors approved the principle of 20mph ‘speed restrictions, where appropriate’ at a farcical full council meeting.
In almost three hours of debate, discussions included three amendments, bitter words exchanged, and some councillors not being aware of what they were voting on.
Cllr Mike Hunter said the scenes were ‘a travesty’.
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