Cheshire West and Chester Shadow Authority
The new shadow council comprises 72 councillors, of whom 55 are Conservative, 13 are Labour and 4 are Liberal Democrat. The three councillors who were elected to represent Gowy Ward, in which Kelsall sits, are Brian Bailey, Hugo Deynem and Stuart Parker (all Conservative). Hugo has let us have a summary of his view of the future (see below). We hope to post summaries of Brian and Stuart's objectives and aspirations here in the near future. More information on the Shadow Authority can be found on its website, including details of all 72 councillors and a plea to residents to contribute to the on-line consultation on Area and Neighbourhood Working.
Hugo Deynem - Conservative Party (elected 1 May 2008)
Though we as a party did not support the creation of the new Cheshire West & Chester
authority I and all my colleagues are determined to make this new council a flagship
council that will be one of, if not the best, performing council in the country. One of
the main advantages of this amalgamation will be the removal of services that are
duplicated across the existing 4 authorities, Chester City, Vale Royal, Ellesmere Port
& Neston and the County. This will result in a considerable cost saving to tax payers,
although those services that can be shown to benefit from countywide delivery should, I
believe, be delivered as a single service across the whole of the county.
I am determined that our County capital should remain as both the political and cultural
centre of the new authority, and that our current civic positions such as the Lord
Mayoralty of Chester are retained along with their wonderful history.
This is an incredibly exiting opportunity for me and my colleagues as councillors, to
actually begin with a clean canvas and create a brand new council serving almost 330,000
residents. Consultation will be key to creating and delivering the correct services across
the authority and I would hope as many people become engaged in that process as possible,
either through organised consultation processes or by contacting members of the Cheshire
West & Chester shadow authority directly.