IS IT possible? A new local council coming into existence and not costing the taxpayers a king’s ransom?
That’s the claim of Cheshire West and Chester Council, the new all-purpose authority that will come into operation next week covering Ellesmere Port, Neston, Winsford, Northwich, Frodsham and Chester, with a population of 327,000.
The Conservatives won a big majority in elections for the new authority last year and the leader, Mike Jones, has tried to pre-empt the usual row that attends any local government reorganisation.
Claims that the public are confused, pining for their old council and being ripped off are as predictable on these occasions as is lurid publicity for some modest junket to launch the new body (although I am not aware of one planned in this case).
Cllr Jones says transitional and transformational costs amount to £31m but savings on staff and rationalisation will come to £90m over three years. Today the 72 new councillors and officials from the 24 wards begin a series of roadshows to get over the message that the public will now have one point of contact for all council services as Cheshire County Council and the district councils are abolished.
Cheshire West and Chester will want to get off to a good start because it was created after a long battle, with firstly Chester wanting to go it alone and then Cheshire County Council bidding to be the all-purpose authority for the whole area from Macclesfield to the Welsh border.
A TEAM of MPs will be giving some of Liverpool’s top academics a grilling in the city this afternoon. The select committee which concerns itself with university matters is in town following the alarming news that both Liverpool and John Moores universities are contemplating axing a swathe of degree courses.
I hope you’ll allow my special concern for the shadow that hangs over the politics department at Liverpool University. I have always found the citizens of this city love to debate politics and do it in a lively and informed way that beats anywhere else. Perhaps that’s because the city has such a rich political history, and it certainly means that the department should be preserved. I notice that the Liverpool Vice Chancellor, Sir Howard Newby, is not among the witnesses. That’s a shame because he has become a controversial character. Having held top university administrative posts he became Vice Chancellor of the University of the West of England in 2006.
Just over a year later he announced his move north.
In his first few months at Liverpool University he has ruffled many feathers with his reorganisation plans, as in Bristol. There may be merit in some of the reforms Sir Howard is proposing. Let’s hope he hasn’t moved on again before we are in a position to judge.
