“Once in a generation opportunity” – lol!

That’s how 25 years ago we were sold the pup that became the lame dog Cheshire East Council.

We lost the consistently solvent and always reliable Macclesfield Borough Council along with the equally solvent and reliable Cheshire County Council.

Now the new bunch in Westminster are pulling the wool again.

They tell us it’s a consultation – but like all the others the decisions have been made but they need to be able to say they asked our opinions.

They’re determined to combine Cheshire East Council – currently in debt to the tune of around £100 million, Cheshire West likewise to the tune of £156 million and Warrington Council.

Warrington is £2 billion in debt
Get your heads around those figures then consider that Warrington’s finances are in such an appalling state that last year (June 2024) they acquired the moniker of Britain’s most heavily indebted local authority – with debts close to £2 billion!

The Labour-run authority’s audited annual accounts were years overdue – so much so that, a government inspector was appointed to look into whether Warrington was complying with a legal requirement to secure “best value” from its investments.

Warrington’s finances were in such a parlous state, credit agency Moody’s said it was withdrawing the credit rating of Warrington Borough Council because the local authority could not show that successive annual accounts had been signed off by external auditors!

Ratings agencies provide borrower’s credit quality and the removal of a rating can reduce the number of investors willing or allowed to lend to them. As such, Moody’s action marked an escalation in the council’s long-running financial woes.

The government has sought views on how to tackle the “unacceptable” auditing backlog across a number of local authorities. Last year Moody’s warned that several local authorities were at risk of insolvency after years of budget cuts and mismanagement.

Now the Government has come up with a solution and they and the three councils are telling us that we’re being given a ‘once in a generation opportunity’. Which really means an opportunity for the three councils and the Government – not the residents of the three authorities.

Our Government is a shambolic, all three councils are in a permanent state of omni-shambles – which can only mean one thing – if devolution goes ahead we’re all heading for the mother of all cluster-fu**s!

Following confirmation that Cheshire and Warrington is part of the devolution priority programme (DPP), government is undertaking an eight-week consultation to gather views from residents, businesses and communities. The same questions are generally asked across all six areas in the DPP, but there are also some questions specific to the Cheshire and Warrington area that government wants to hear about.

Make your views known HERE