Wilmslow could lose its town centre manager next year as Cheshire East Council (CEC) proposes to cut this resource.
The role of town centre manager for Wilmslow is performed by Diane Smith, whose responsibility also covers several neighbouring towns and villages, including Alderley Edge, Prestbury, Bollington and Knutsford.
Town Clerk Matthew Jackson, told councillors at last night's meeting that the town centre manager was no longer going to be funded by Cheshire East Council (CEC).
He explained "We have been advised that CEC will not provide a town centre manager in the current form from April 2012. We have been invited to enter into dialogue with Cheshire East if we wish to purchase town centre services from them.
"There is a little bit of uncertainty as to whether Diane Smith will continue to be the town centre manager as she looks after 6 or 7 towns. We have very little information at the moment but we have had an indication of costings. I simply asked for a price per day per week and was given the figure of £13,600 per day per annum."
Matthew added "Diane Smith has done a fantastic job for many years in my opinion. She'll co-ordinate events from CEC's perspective and behind the scenes she takes care of things that need to happen such as organising road closures and liaising with highways.
"With Diane it is, one about enthusiasm and two about the contacts she has within CEC - she interacts with parks services and all sorts of different things. She knows how they operate, the key thing is being internal to CEC.
"They have indicated Diane going towards Macclesfield but they are not closing the door on Diane being part of the future of Wilmslow and the other towns."
Cllr Sue Menlove commented "We have to have somebody but would prefer Diane, she knows the ins and outs of CEC. I propose we go ahead with CEC and hopefully it will be Diane."
Whilst several town councillors initially said they only wanted to pay if they got Diane Smith, they voted unanimously to "pursue purchasing town centre management from CEC with the view to paying for one day capped at £13,600."
Comments
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What Wilmslow needs desperately is a damn good clean-up lots of TLC. gulleys/grids cleaned regularly,leaves swept in Autumn, to stop blocked grids as now. Anyone seen all the water pools on Chapel Lane,Victoria Rd, Alderley Rd. Leaves that have been compacted for over 3,YES!! 3 years. outside the Church on Chapel Lane. Councillors. DO not spend £59,000 on stupid branding. LETS have a big NEW YEAR clean up around the Town. Lots of people woulds spare 2 hours on a Sunday.If you get the road sweepers out, on Sunday also.(no cars parked)
Is it not time for Wilmslow Town Council to stand on its own feet and provide its own services? Share services with similar towns like Poynton or Knutsford but should not provide Cheshire East Council with another profit source from its (our) limited resources.
When you take into account Employers National Insurance contributions, pension, travel and office overheads and the fact that town centre managers earn £30-£35K it would almost certainly cost more to employ a manager directly.
What concerns me more is how on earth WTC's town centre manager be making independent policy decisions when they also work for towns competing for trade and resources? The point of having a town council is to avoid a cookie cutter approach.