The candidates for the upcoming Cheshire East Council election, representing Wilmslow East Ward, have been announced.
Residents in the Wilmslow East Ward will have the choice of three candidates to fill one seat, when they go to the polls on on Thursday, 4th May.
The candidates standing are:
- Duckworth, John Hartley - The Conservative Party Candidate
- Jefferay, David William - Residents of Wilmslow *
- Murphy, Sarah Marianne - Liberal Democrats
I will publish brief interviews with each of the candidates, in the order in which I receive a response to my request. Use the tags below to locate the other candidate interviews published to date.
Please tell me about yourself - occupation, where you live, interests, family?
I live on Welton Drive with my wife (Louise), our 5 year old son (Buster), our dog (Perra), 3 cats (Chloe, Poppy and Captain Ginger) and a varying number of chickens.
My background is as a Chartered Mechanical Engineer in the nuclear industry. However, after a couple of decades in the industry I decided to change direction to do something I was more passionate about so I retrained to become a professional dog trainer.
My free time is generally divided between messing around with my son, growing veg (in the garden and at the allotment), taking the dog for long walks, reading and visiting the Horse and Jockey for cake and Timothy Taylors!
How long you have lived in there?
I was born and raised in Wilmslow. I went to Lindow Primary and Wilmslow High Schools before starting work as an apprentice for ICI/Zeneca in Macclesfield. I then moved away for a period to go to university and for my career before returning in 2010.
Are you a member of any local groups or societies?
None currently, except for the allotment association.
Why have you decided to stand for re-election as a borough councillor?
I am standing again because I believe my RoW colleagues and I have helped a lot of people over the past 4 years and significantly improved Wilmslow (and Cheshire East as a whole) but I know that we can do more. I also believe that the review of the CEC local plan which will be happening in the coming years will require Wilmslow's councillors to act robustly on behalf of Wilmslow's residents rather than being compelled to follow a party line.
What do you consider to be the important issues facing Wilmslow?
I first became a councillor to help protect green spaces around Wilmslow when they were developing the current Cheshire East Local Plan (which defines development sites up to 2030). Cheshire East Council will be reviewing that local plan and looking towards the next local plan (2030-2045) over the next 4 years so I would be looking to get involved in that process. RoW had some success in lobbying to reduce Wilmslow's housing allocations last time but we had no Cheshire East councillors and only one or two Town Councillors so RoW had much less influence than we currently do. If we can maintain or increase our influence then we can do more to protect Wilmslow's remaining green belt.
Other areas where there is work to be done in Wilmslow East (there are other priorities in the rest of the town) include improving the parking issues, supporting the aspirations of the Wilmslow Neighbourhood Plan Implementation Group, and improving Romany's Garden by the library.
My RoW colleagues and I would, of course, be working to maximise the Highways funds made available to Wilmslow for improving the road surfaces but without greater funding from central government, all councils are struggling to maintain their networks. This has probably been my main frustration / disappointment since being elected in 2019. There are roads, for example Cedar way off Fulshaw Park South, which are in desperate need of resurfacing but do not score highly enough against the criteria to be prioritised given the limited budget, which is just not fair to the residents.
What do you hope to achieve and how in the next 4 years?
If I am fortunate enough to be elected again, I will be looking to get involved in the Local Plan process to help defend Wilmslow's green spaces post 2030 (there are areas of Wilmslow such as land at the back of Upcast Lane, which are currently allocated for development in the next local plan period).
A project I had been pursuing over the past few years was the building of a Multi-Storey Carpark on Broadway Meadows Carpark. The project was progressing but due to the combination of the existing carpark currently not being full with the post-COVID changes to working habits and the recent high construction cost inflation, the business case is not currently viable. I will therefore be actively monitoring the parking issues in the town to ensure that the Council is prepared to act when/if the pre-COVID parking issues return, as I believe they will.
Each year, CEC councillors are allocated a highways ward budget of around £8000 for minor works. I have indicated to the CEC highways that (if elected) my priorities for this year would be a speed review on Holly Road North and South in response to concerns raised by residents that it is being used as a rat run, and a parking review on Glenside / Leaside to try to resolve the longstanding issue of inconsiderate parking there.
I also want to support improving the Romany's garden area near the library and I believe there is also something that can be done to improve the council owned fields on the corner of Pendleton Way and Prestbury Road (this site has been allocated some funding for improving biodiversity but I believe it has great potential as public open space and a wildlife haven).
What experience and personal qualities will you bring to the role?
I have been a councillor for about 9 years. I was first elected in 2014 when a casual vacancy arose on Wilmslow Town Council and I was re-elected at the 2015 elections. I was then elected to Cheshire East Council in 2019. The role of a CEC councillor really comprises 3 main parts; 1) helping residents with issues, 2) making decisions as part of committees and full council that affect the whole borough, and 3) getting involved with projects and representing the council on external bodies.
Over my time as a councillor, I have gained significant working knowledge of both Wilmslow Town Council and Cheshire East and have good working relationships with many of the officers at the councils. Knowing who to go to and how things work really helps when trying to get things done, especially for the first aspect of trying to help residents with problems.
On the second aspect, since becoming a councillor, I have gained a significant amount of knowledge and experience including 5 years on the Wilmslow Town Council planning committee, 2 years on CEC Strategic Planning Board, 2 years on the CEC Northern Planning Committee. I have also spent the past 2 years on the CEC Economy and Growth committee which is responsible for the Town Centre Vitality Plans, which have been prepared to regenerate Cheshire East's towns including Wilmslow, and for major projects such as the Handforth Garden Village, and two years on the Corporate Parenting Committee, which is responsible for Cheshire East's children in care. I think one of the key qualities I bring to this aspect of the role is an ability to scrutinise and analyse information. Developed over a couple of decades of being an engineer in the nuclear industry, this enables me to ask important questions of officers when they present information and plans at committees.
Why should Wilmslow residents vote for you?
It is easy to forget the significant problems Cheshire East Council had just four years ago with controversy, police investigations and scandals. The Council is now a much better organisation and that is thanks in no small part to the change in administration and governance structure brought in by the independents including RoW. In 2019, RoW campaigned on a "Change Cheshire East" pledge to change CEC from a cabinet system where power was in the hands of a few councillors, to a committee system where all councillors have an influence. We, together with independents across the borough, delivered on that pledge. On a more local level, it is also easy to forget the inconsiderate parking along Alderley Road which was causing dangerous situations. We said we would sort it out and that was one of the first projects I took on and pushed through.
I would ask residents to vote for me if they want someone who has extensive experience in local government but is free from party politics, who delivers on promises, who is open and transparent (where I have made decisions with which people may not agree with I have endeavoured to explain my rationale on social media) and who is accessible (as well as being accessible by email and phone, my RoW colleagues and I regularly have a stall at the artisan market and we hold monthly surgeries at the library – not just when we need your votes at election time!).
*current councillor.
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