Labour Leader and Deputy Mayor at Cheshire East Council

Following the agreement to deliver stability and a further four years of joint administration with the Cheshire East Independent Group, Labour Leader Cllr Sam Corcoran was today re-elected as Leader of Cheshire East Council.

Cllr Marilyn Houston was also elected as Deputy Mayor of Cheshire East for the forthcoming year.

Cllr Sam Corcoran, Labour Leader of Cheshire East Council said:

“Under my leadership Cheshire East Council has been on an improvement journey as confirmed by the Local Government Association and our external auditors. We will build on the achievements of the last four years to deliver benefits for all residents. The Labour led administration has bought much needed stability to Cheshire East Council.

Over the next 4 years a Labour led Cheshire East Council will continue to tackle climate change, seek to reduce health inequalities, promote good physical and mental health, promote active travel, access to green spaces, decent housing and good jobs. In addition, we will continue to work on town centre renewal, seeking much needed government funding to be distributed fairly across the borough.

Cllr Marilyn Houston, Deputy Mayor of Cheshire East said:

“I’m very proud to be elected as the Deputy Mayor for Cheshire East. I’m looking forward to supporting the Mayor in performing our civic duties.”

Speech by Cllr Sam Corcoran, Labour Leader of Cheshire East Council:

Thank you for re-electing me. It is an honour and privilege to serve as Leader of Cheshire East Council for a fifth year. As we all know, once you are elected, you represent the entire electorate. I hope to work with all councillors.

As councillors we are all called to public service.

We bring a message of hope.

Hope for children and young people to fulfil their potential; we’ll lobby government to change the funding formula for our underfunded schools, prioritise mental health early intervention; we will expand local provision for cared-for children so they can be supported nearer home - thereby reducing the need for costly out-of-area private placements.

Hope for our environment; Cheshire East Council is committed to being carbon neutral by 2025, one of the most ambitious targets in the country. In fact I can find only one other council that has committed to a date as early as 2025 – the Highland Council in Scotland. So we are at the forefront of climate action. Our Carbon Neutral Action Plan sets out in detail how the target will be achieved – and we’re on track.  We’ll work with businesses and residents to make the borough as a whole carbon neutral by 2045.

No support for fracking, but plenty of support for biodiversity, with a Biodiversity Net Gain Supplementary Planning Document.

On a personal note I am the County Council’s Network Spokesperson on the Environment and Communities, campaigning nationally that climate change is the greatest challenge facing our generation.

Hope for our hard-pressed highways to be properly maintained; I am sure Craig will talk more about this later.

Hope for our staff - We have set a fully-balanced four year budget; we have a clean “value-for-money” audit report. We have run a fully functional organisation taking a pride in its integrity; the council has a “transformed culture” – the words of the Local Government Association.

We will continue to improve Cheshire East Council’s reputation so that residents should be proud to live in Cheshire East and staff should be proud to work for their Council.

It never fails to shock me that there is a 12 year life expectancy gap between different wards in this borough. We now know how to address this. We need good jobs, decent housing, access to green spaces, reduced smoking, healthy diets, resilient communities and active lifestyles. The NHS is great at treating illness, but by improving population health we can stop people getting ill in the first place and reduce demand on the NHS. Members will have seen the tartan rug showing graphically where the areas of poor health are and they co-incide with areas of deprivation.

Over the next 4 years, we will act to reduce health inequalities. We will continue our Council Tax support scheme for low-income households. We will respond to the projected £1,840 fall in disposable income that an average family will see in the next two years. We will build on our Social Value Policy to reward good employers. We will press ahead with regeneration plans for Crewe and Macclesfield town centres. We will continue to monitor Houses of Multiple Occupation. We will promote strong communities, good employment and decent housing.

Cheshire East is a beautiful, green borough. People want to live here and businesses want to be based here. We have world-leading science and technology and a Council that is at the forefront of tackling climate change.

We have a lot to be proud of and I hope that all councillors will support these aims.

The Cheshire East Labour Manifesto is available at: 

www.ncla.uk

The Labour-led administration has:

• Achieved action on climate change, with a detailed Carbon Action Plan setting out how the Council will be carbon neutral by 2025, one of the most ambitious targets in the country – and we are on track to meet that target.
• Transformed the culture at the Council. The bullying culture that existed under the Conservatives is in the past.
• Improved help for households on low incomes, building on the highly successful People Helping People scheme to address social isolation and reach more into communities which need help.
• Achieved a fully-balanced 4-year budget (with none of the financial black holes and unachievable budget savings that occurred under the Conservatives).

A Labour Cheshire East Council will:

• Continue to take action on climate change to make the Borough as a whole carbon neutral by 2045.
• Cheshire East is a hugely unequal area, with a variance of over 10 years in life expectancy between different areas of the Borough. We will address physical and mental health inequalities along with improved housing, healthy lifestyles and access to green spaces.
• Continue to work on town centre renewal, seeking government funding, improving the public realm and supporting new and independent traders and town centre living.
• Positively encourage active travel and the implementation of 20mph areas where appropriate and supported by local residents.
• Continue to ensure that Councillors and Officers act ethically and within their Codes of Conduct, in contrast to the recent Public Interest Report highlighting the significant weaknesses of the previous Conservative administration.

Pictured - Labour Leader Cllr Sam Corcoran re-elected as Leader of Cheshire East Council.