Every week, our readers write into us about all manner of topics.
This week, Will Charlton, of Winsford, has asked us to share his open letter to Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations.
A General Election is due, soon possibly.
City Regions have been the direction of travel since the Labour group promoting them beat John Prescott’s Regional Assemblies. Cheshire rejected Merseyshire and Manshire: the 2008 division of Cheshire therefore was a bodge; it made no sense.
The policy of Government and the Labour Party is devolution, with another Local Government change: amalgamating Cheshire East and West with Warrington as a City Region; the 13th change to Cheshire’s local government in the past 120 years.
Please can you confirm the people of Cheshire and Warrington are to have a referendum on this 13th change?
We in Cheshire are being sold another bodged change to local government.
Your civil servants say that Warrington in the City Region is to deal with its reported £1.8bn debt; and that Cheshire will be protected from its effects. How?
Unless Warrington, perversely, is to have its debt written off, Warrington within the City Region will have to set a different community charge to 'Single Cheshire'; and so will have different funding allocations on services, education, social care etc and thus separate elected members, separate chief executives.
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