Wilmslow Town Council has decided to buy back Town Centre Management Services from Cheshire East Council (CEC) at a cost of £12,000 for one day a week for the year.
Last year the Town Council were informed that CEC would no longer provide this resource in the current form and they were invited to enter into dialogue with Cheshire East if we wished to purchase town centre services from them.
Wilmslow Town Council agreed at their meeting on Wednesday 7th March that they would pay CEC £12,000 for Town Centre Management Services for one day a week for the financial year 2012/13.
They also agreed that the Community and Order Committee would design a document, for the Town Council, to look at the expected outcomes from the service provided and to report back their recommendations to the Town Council.
The role of town centre manager for Wilmslow is currently performed by Diane Smith (pictured), whose responsibility also covers several neighbouring towns and villages, including Alderley Edge, Prestbury, Bollington and Knutsford.
Town Clerk Matthew Jackson, told wilmslow.co.uk "We are expecting that Diane will provide the majority of the service" which will have been welcome news for the council.
Speaking back in December 2011, Matthew Jackson said "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."
There is effectively no cost to the Town Council in this first year, and no commitment to purchasing the service beyond that time, as Cheshire East Council are providing a grant to Wilmslow Town Council of £21,000 for the coming financial year to offset the cost for the provision of services in Macclesfield and Crewe that will no longer be provided in Wilmslow, and other Cheshire East towns.
A spokesman for Cheshire East Council said: "Residents of parished areas in Cheshire East pay an additional precept on their Council Tax for the delivery of some local services, such as town centre managers, public toilets and markets.
"There is currently no town council in either Crewe or Macclesfield. Therefore, some services are received in these areas that are charged as a precept in parished areas.
"To redress this, Cheshire East Council proposes to give a one-off grant to all town and parish councils in proportion to their individual Band D Council Tax base. Cheshire East will revisit the issue of charging a special expense in both Crewe and Macclesfield and is minded to make a charge from April 2013.
"The exact amounts will be communicated to each town and parish. This is a welcome initiative as it provides towns and parishes with an extra grant that will help to delivery their local services."
