Ward councillors in Cheshire East are to have an extra £4,200 to tackle issues like potholes from April, writes Ethan Davies.
As part of the Cheshire East 2021/22 budget, Cllr David Marren proposed an amendment to the finance plans which would see each member given ‘at least £4,200’ to tackle highway maintenance issues in their area.
However, opposition councillors said the scheme “discriminated” against rural areas.
Presenting the policy, Cllr Marren said: “I am fed up of telling residents that I have reported a faded street sign and it has been added to a programme of improvements.
“I am fed up of not being able to get a grit bin to where quite a few elderly residents live.
“Residents [assess] the performance of their local councillors on how effectively they sort out problems.
“This amendment is about getting stuff done in our wards. It has no great effect on funding, it is a transfer of funding.”
Cllr Marren said the pot will be funded from an allocation of capital grants — money usually earmarked for longer term projects.
Conservative leader Cllr Janet Clowes said: “For those of us in single-member wards, [the fund] will go absolutely nowhere.
“It is a great pity that we did not have the opportunity to look at it before the meeting.
“I think it is discriminatory against rural wards.”
Cllr Clowes’ final assertion was that, because the funding would be provided to councillors and not wards, those areas with more than one representative would get more funding.
And, typically, urban areas have more multi-member wards, so rural areas would lose out, she argued.
Despite her concerns, the amendment was accepted readily by the budget’s proposer Cllr Amanda Stott and seconder Cllr Laura Crane.
As part of the approval, the fund will be reviewed from 2022/23 with the view of ‘widening’ its purview and the amount given to each councillor.
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