Elected members of Cheshire East Council will have more cash to spend on highways projects in their local wards next year.
Ward member budgets, introduced in 2021, will increase by 50 per cent from £4,200 to £6,500. The change will empower elected members to prioritise local highway investment and call upon their own budgets to help finance them.
The change will come into effect from April 2023 and will operate for a fixed period of four years. The scheme is designed to encourage town and parish councils to work with their local ward members by, for example, allowing to match-fund projects for which there is widespread community support.
Examples of where ward member budgets could be spent include street lighting, footway and highways patching, road signage, vegetation clearance, drainage works and road markings.
Councillor Craig Browne, council deputy leader and chair of the council's highways and transport committee, said: "I am confident that this improved scheme, with an increased budget, will help to give elected ward members a greater say in the delivery of local highways and transport priorities.
"The enhanced ward member budget scheme will help deliver locally important highways schemes and I am certain that residents will see a significant benefit over the next four years."
Comments
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"The scheme is designed to encourage town and parish councils to work with their local ward members by, for example, allowing to match-fund projects for which there is widespread community support."
I guess this means our local councillors spending this money on things about which the local residents, they ‘represent’, feel strongly and want sorted.
Well, how often does anyone actually meet face to face with their local councillor and discuss with them what they think?
This shouldn’t be a problem because ‘local’ councillors should be just that - LOCAL - which to me infers living in the locality and so regularly mixing with the people they represent on an almost daily basis.
I am not sure this is the case and would suggest that ALL councillors at least get together and in the case of Wilmslow have a stall on the regular local Artisan Market and wearing a name badge to clearly identify them to the residents who can ‘bend their ear’ on the various issues that interest them.
It’s no use saying our councillors can be contacted by email or phone; they need to be SEEN amongst those they represent. Rather like having a face-to-face appointment with your GP instead of a telephone appointment. Equally I am completely against politics of any kind moving onto social media. This all started with Donald Trump and his Twitter nonsense/propaganda. How any publicly represented person can ever think of expressing their views via such channels is beyond me. All that is required is a website where they can calmly and concisely outline their stance on various issues and regularly inform their ‘flock/voters’ on what they have been up to and what they are doing about various local issues - a kind of diary of ‘what I have been up to lately on your behalf’.
Not everyone has social media and ever wants it so to blatantly go down that path is a disastrous mistake.
It’s a sad fact that the next UK general election will be fought on the likes of Twitter and all the nonsense that is mixed up therein.
We even now have out POLICE justifying their actions and stance on certain events on the likes of Twitter. I mean what has the future of our society now become?
Some councillors are better than others. In particular Mark Goldsmith, Craig Browne and David Jefferay who often put finger to keyboard and contribute to our two local media ‘rags’ - Alderley & Wilmslow.co.uk.
My own councillor - Don Stockton - I have never heard a peep from until recently when he contributed to the issue of the Wilmslow Multi Storey Car Park. I’ve only met him twice in the 40 years I have been a resident in town and the first one was when he appeared at my door with our then MP, Neil Hamilton [of brown envelope fame], who was doing the rounds for re-election and perhaps thought he would ‘lend him a hand’ to further his own election hopes as a local councillor.
I look forward to meeting you if you can make it at the artisan market or the library.
Kind regards
Cllr Lata Anderson
Residents of Wilmslow
CE councillor for Dean RoW
Residents of Wilmslow regularly has a stand at the Artisan Market. It is manned by RoW councillors throughout the day, so we get to speak with people about their issues. The market traders get first option on the stall spaces though, so we can’t guarantee to be there every month. We are hoping to be back again in October though.
The four Wilmslow Cheshire East councillors at RoW also hold a drop in surgery at Wilmslow Library on the last Thursday of the month from 6pm to 7pm. No appointment needed, just come along.
We also monitor social media to pick up on issues too. However, the scale of it makes it hard to constantly keep track of, so apologies if we miss anything.
The vast majority of our contact with the public comes via an email to us, which we try and respond to within a day or two.
Therefore, we aim to give people as wide a selection of ways to contact us as possible, so they can decide which method they prefer.
We don’t mind which way they chose, just that they contact us. We can then often do something to help their situation.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
There are no current road markings due to wear.
What makes this particularly dangerous that immediately adjacent to the bridge on the Station Road side, is an unmarked pedestrian crossing, from the footpath running alongside Wilmslow High School / Leisure centre, well used by children and adults alike. It needs to be better marked than it currently is for road and pedestrian safety.
Over the years ,aside from flooding,there have been a number of accidents and cursings when vehicles have not complied to the priority signage, But we cant wait for a child or pedestrian to be injured or worse !
From recent experience with my RoW CEC Cllr David Jefferay, and his colleagues rectifying a road sign issue , I know this wont fall on deaf ears and suggest that this demonstrably hazardous location, perhaps the worst in our town, is visited and the signage / markings much improved for better public protection .
Coincidentally, relining is exactly what I have asked most of my money to be spent on although being perfectly honest I don't think I included under the bridge, which I think you are right, I probably should have.
I did include the area around the Swan Street/ Manchester Road junction, the roundabout at the King William and the zebra crossing down near Waitrose). I am awaiting a meeting with highways to go through the costings so if I can afford it (I do not have a feel for how many days it will take to do the lining I have asked for) I will try to add the bridge area (otherwise it will be a job for whoever wins the East Ward seat in May's elections!).
Kind regards
Dave