As reported last week, the public consultation for the formation of a new Parish Council ended on June 4th with the return of almost 7,000 ballots for the areas of Wilmslow, Styal and Handforth.
Ballots were sent to 25,000 households asking residents to vote on whether they would like a Parish Council. They were also asked whether they would prefer an individual Parish Council for their area, or one combined Parish Council to cover all three places.
Over 60% of respondents said they did want a Parish Council and of the 4,196 people who answered question 2, 63.5% were in favour of a separate Parish Council for their area, rather than a combined Parish Council for Wilmslow, Handforth and Styal.
63% of respondents in Wilmslow wanted a separate Parish Council for the town, 60% of those who responded in Handforth also wanted their own Parish Council whilst in Styal an overwhelming majority of 89% voted for an individual Styal Parish Council.
Below is a summary of the results of the returned voting papers:
| Yes | No | Combined Parish Council | Separate Parish Council |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmslow | 2894 | 2144 | 1090 | 1846 |
| Handforth | 1023 | 534 | 415 | 619 |
| Styal | 219 | 23 | 25 | 201 |
| Total | 4136 | 2701 | 1530 | 2666 |
In total 6876 voting papers were returned out of a total of 25,019 issued, representing an overall response rate of 27.48%. The table below provides a breakdown for the 3 areas:
| No. of voting papers issued | No. of voting papers returned | % response | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmslow | 17,732 | 5,066 | 28.57 |
| Handforth | 6,695 | 1,563 | 23.25 |
| Styal | 592 | 247 | 41.72 |
| Total | 25,019 | 6876 | 27.48% |
The results of the initial phase of consultation will be discussed by the Wilmslow Community Governance Review Sub-Committee tomorrow, June 24th, where a draft recommendation will be drawn up and submitted to the Constitution Committee later the same day for approval.
It is due to be referred to full Council on July 22nd with a final decision expected in mid-September.
Whilst the council needs to ensure that community governance within the area under review will be reflective of the identities and interests of the community in that area, provided it takes the views of local people into account Cheshire East Council can decide whether to give effect to the recommendations arising from the Community Governance Review.
wilmslow.co.uk will publish details of the Wilmslow Community Governance Review Sub-Committee's draft recommendations as soon as the information is made available.
