Cllr Margaret Parker is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Cheshire West & Chester Council.
Since losing control of Cheshire West & Chester in 2015, it has been painful to watch the Labour Administration undo and squander the progress and opportunity we achieved for our residents.
Focus has shifted from a balanced approach across the Borough, to a centric approach on Labour strongholds, shrouded by a declaration of crisis after crisis and the constant fixation on ‘Government bashing’, rather than getting on the with the job in hand.
The net result is an increasingly disengaged, sceptical and distrusting electorate, experiencing basic services deteriorating, at increased cost – and some strong Officers leaving the Council team. More and more the Council has become officer-run, with little cohesive support and direction from the Administration which, despite Officers’ best efforts, ultimately delivers less for our residents.
Of course, we have had the pandemic to navigate, and this has required huge efforts from the team in CWaC. However, again, the narrative from the Administration was preoccupied with political point-scoring, rather than simply grasping the unprecedented support from Government with both hands and driving forward with a coordinated plan.
Our residents deserve better. Outside the new Council Offices that have just been completed (even though most of the team are now working remotely), our Borough looks neglected. Funds are found for external consultants to ‘buy-in’ new thinking, but highways, verges, rural communities, and high streets lack maintenance or the innovation to reinvent our public spaces. More innovation and tangible impact is seeded from our Community Groups and local residents, who consistently come together to realise events, local improvement initiatives, and campaigns with a notable lack of support from the Council Administration.
With record Council Tax (an increase of over 30 per cent in the last seven years), reduced waste services, stealth taxes on Green Waste and disposal of DIY Waste, and Policy that regularly contradicts the day-to-day decisions and priorities portrayed by the Administration, it has become impossible to even start to rationalise, let alone defend.
Constant selective publication of changing budget structures to engender the ‘Budget Cuts’ narrative, is outweighed by the fact that the Council is sitting on record reserves; underspends each year (even during the pandemic); and plans to spend £50m more this year than when the Administration took control in 2015. Despite this, progress is woeful and not aligned to our residents’ priorities.
This is not good for our residents, is pure political posturing, and is a smoke-screen to obscure a lack of ideas and poor performance. Although embraced by our communities, it is also telling that the Administration has now turned to ‘crowd-funding’ to help fund community groups and organisations supporting our own residents. This is a further stealth tax on the good nature and generosity of our residents.
With elections just around the corner and our residents more and more enraged by the Administration’s failings, being continually behind the curve on the basics, never mind having a strong hand on long-term projects like HS2 mitigations, thankfully they are running out of time. Their lacklustre response signals a realisation that these problems may not be theirs for long, and an expectation to leave it for the Conservative Group to deal with.
Our residents have a simple choice next year, another four years of fantasy socialist experimentation, political posturing, poor financial stewardship, and diminishing core services, or a new Conservative Administration, focused on creating a Borough to be proud of, supporting and facilitating our communities to make local improvements, with cohesive policies, supported by our MPs, which offer tangible value for money for all our residents.
Our Manifesto is well underway, with ‘Team Away Days’ and policy working groups deciding where our focus should be and mapping out priorities from Day 1. There is a lot to fix and granted some of that is not attractive to voters, so we need clear, achievable pledges and policies to gain support across the Borough. Challenges are wide and diverse, but underlying themes regarding the state of our Borough, cost of living, wellbeing, housing, support services all manifest themselves in different ways across our urban and rural communities, so there needs to be agility in our plans to adapt to these.
A strong manifesto starts with a lot of listening, and our focus is just that at present. Canvassing residents, surveys, and getting out into the communities to hear genuine accounts, not extrapolated statistics is invaluable. This feedback will shape our approach and priorities to be published in the Autumn. This provides enough time for our communities to reflect on our plans but avoids the Labour Administration capitalising on our ‘on the ground’ insights to their own gain.
National politics is an issue on the doorstep, as we have seen in recent by-elections. There is always a challenge to separate it from potholes, bin collections, school transport, clean streets, housing, and support for our business communities. We hope that the national narrative will be more positive by 2023 to support our message for Cheshire West and Chester and avoid our plans for positive change being drowned out by any antics across the chamber in Westminster.
Selection is almost complete for all our candidates. We have a number of experienced councillors making way for some new blood in 2023, broadening the diversity in our group and harnessing new skills and experience. The experience of retiring Councillors will be essential between now and May, to not only introduce new candidates into our communities, but also prepare them for the task ahead, including them in our Group Caucus and debates from the point of selection.
Support from our five Conservative Associations will also be key. We need to ensure a consistent message to the electorate.
Looking ahead to May 2023, it does feel a little like Westminster in 2010. We are not sure what we may inherit next year – much of the family silver has been sold, so budgeting to get back on track will be a challenge. However, with a strong capable team and clear priorities we will face the challenge head on and make the right decisions for our residents and Council colleagues.