Cheshire East highways officers are “dragging their feet” over schemes being funded by councillors’ ward budgets – with one saying Cheshire East faces losing nearly £50,000 of investment because “we can’t get a response”.
Cllr Craig Browne was speaking as the highways and transport committee which discussed the member ward budget scheme.
Each councillor has £4,512 a year to spend on highways improvements in their wards.
Cllr Browne said he had been told in November 2023 during a site visit with “officer one” that plans for his road safety scheme would be drawn up and consulted on.
In April 2025 he went through exactly the same walk-through with “officer two” and again was told “it was technically compliant and that designs will be drawn up and a cost estimate produced”.
Cllr Browne said highways then emailed him saying there was no budget for the design, so Alderley Edge Parish Council paid the £2,000 for the plans.
In September last year he heard the cost would be £60,000 and despite him contacting officers, he hasn’t heard a thing since.
“I’ve got £13,500 allocated from my ward budget for this road safety project,” said Cllr Browne.
“I’ve got £13,500 promised in principle from Alderley Edge Parish Council to match-fund that work and I’ve got a commitment in principle again, from a local business, to match-fund both of those contributions for this scheme.
“So effectively, we are looking at turning down a £50,000 investment in the local highways network because we can’t get the response from officers.
“It’s now 29 months on from when I first had the site visits.”
Shavington councillor Linda Buchanan (Lab) said she is still chasing up two proposals.
The first, for speed humps, dated back to April 2024 and after several requests she was given an estimate of £16,000 in February 2025.
She had £13,000 in her budget so Rope Parish Council contributed £1,000 and Shavington Parish Council the extra £2,000.
She said on October 1, 2025 she was ‘flabbergasted’ when told by highways, speed humps were not appropriate and an alternative measure was required.
On December 22 she was told this would cost £30,000.
Willaston councillor Allen Gage also outlined issues with two of his proposals and was scathing.
“The point of this scheme was to give local democratic voice more say and more control,” he said
“It seems feet have been dragged at every opportunity by the department, simply because they did not want this scheme and did not want councillors to have the control or the input that they did.”
Officers agreed there had been unacceptable delays in responding in some cases but the committee heard the department was under a lot of pressure.
They said with the deadline approaching for proposals to be submitted – as the ward member scheme is due to be revised or possibly ended in May 2027 – more officers would be allocated to look at outstanding proposals and any that come in before the end of May this year.
A couple of councillors did tell the meeting they had had good experiences of the scheme.
(Story by Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter)
They are dealing with Ringway Jacobs a very backwards company
Officers run Cheshire East Council not Councillors.
Why on earth do we need speed humps,
The road are in a shocking state with pot holes that you have to drive slowly to avoid not damaging your car.
Get a grip please.
Highways – it can only be my favourite man Cllr Mark Goldsmith.
Has somebody made this up, I think not. It seems to be par for the course. Who is in charge? Polite answers only. Thanks.