Cheshire East announced recently that parish councils are a step closer to owning some of their area's assets.
The future of local service provision is changing as the Council is currently in the process of transferring certain functions and services to town and parish councils. What is unclear though is the impact this will have on local service delivery in Alderley Edge and our council tax.
Councillor Wesley Fitzgerald, Leader of Cheshire East Council and Cabinet member with responsibility for resources, said: "We believe that local people should have the power to influence local service standards.
"The Government's localism agenda and 'Big Society' approach has resulted in much interest from local councils in taking on services that would be best provided locally."
The Council is considering the transfer of allotments, civic and community halls, Christmas lights and trees, hanging baskets, street names, bus shelters, play areas, public toilets, ponds and ditches - enabling them to make considerable savings. These are services which Cheshire East has no statutory obligation to provide and parish councils have the power to, though of course not all of these services are relevant to Alderley Edge.
Councillor Wesley Fitzgerald said: "Alderley Edge Parish Council has not yet responded to consultation carried out by Cheshire East last year but we will be contacting them shortly.
"Conclusions are being reached through one-to-one discussions with each council which has expressed an interest, of which there are 25, and we will have briefed all councils by the end of March.
"The outcomes of all discussions and negotiations will be summarised by the end of May with recommendations to councillors at a future Cabinet meeting. At that point they will determine what options are available regarding the future of these services.
"Any transfers are planned by April 2012 and if towns and parish councils have elected to provide services locally they will build this into their local precept - thereby ensuring that local residents pay for the very local services they receive. At the same time, such services will not be levied through the Cheshire East council tax."
Unfortunately I haven't been able to obtain a comment from Alderley Edge Parish Council yet about this process but my understanding is that once Cheshire East confirms which services it no longer wishes to provide for Alderley Edge the parish council will need to decide if they want to take these on or let them lapse. If the parish council does take on extras services then any required funds will need to be raised through the parish precept.
Prestbury Parish Council met with representatives from Cheshire East a few weeks ago to discuss local service provision in Prestbury and they are currently waiting for data from them regarding existing contracts. This data will enable them to do further work on the project - which Chairman Richard Comber said "Is not a small or simple exercise and will involve a lot of communication with local people."
Click here to read my article about Prestbury Parish Council's response to Cheshire East's proposal to transfer certain local services and whether they feel this really is motivated by a desire to pass control to local people or whether it is simply a cost cutting exercise.
The Council have announced that transitional funding and other services will be available, to provide advice and support as required but it is worth considering that, unlike employees of Cheshire East, parish councillors are volunteers - they do not receive payment for the work they do and many have full time jobs.
