Councillor Peter Hayes has resigned from Cabinet only two months after taking up the position of Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing because he saw little point being there whilst his views were completely ignored.
Councillor Hayes is the newest member of the Cabinet and the fifth councillor to leave the Cabinet since the beginning of last year.
Chief Executive of Cheshire East Council, Erika Wenzel, issued the following statement to her colleagues "I wish to advise you that the Leader of the Council has informed me, that he has received and has accepted the resignation from the Cabinet of Councillor Peter Hayes, Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing. This will take effect immediately.
"In the very near future the Leader of the Council will make an appointment to the vacant Cabinet position and I shall let you know as soon as he has done so."
Councillor Peter Hayes was appointed to the Cabinet in May to oversee the health and wellbeing portfolio, following his election as councillor for the Bollington Ward.
At the time Councillor Fitzgerald said "With regards to the major changes which will take place within the NHS, I believe that over the next five years, the joining together of primary care and public health is an absolute necessity.
"It will be vital from at least two view points: firstly, for joined-up provision of preventative health care and the promotion of good health and, secondly, for greater co-operation and coordination in provision of care for the sick.
He added "Reflecting my comments on the growing importance of joined-up health care, I have appointed new member Cllr Peter Hayes to oversee the health and wellbeing portfolio.
"Cllr Hayes has considerable experience within the health service, having chaired the Macclesfield NHS Trust for 11 years and sat on national health committees."
I spoke with Councillor Heyes to find out why he had resigned so soon after taking up the Cabinet position.
He told me "I resigned because I was utterly prevented from carrying out the role assigned to me and the reason why I was appointed to the Cabinet two months ago.
"I was chosen by the Leader of the Council immediately after having won an election in May and parachuted straight into the Cabinet. i didn't know any of the 8000 employees apart from Wesley Fitzgerald who I had served with decades ago at Macclesfield Borough Council.
"I know about as much about the NHS as anyone in the country that is my expertise, yet for whatever reason the Chief Executive, Erika Wenzel decided she wanted her own advisor. She wants to control everything and pay over £100,000 to get somebody in. Wesley was clearly going to back her so I got out. Wesley always goes with the Chief Executive.
"He is not very good at keeping his Cabinet, he has lost half of them in a year and I don't think I'll be the last to go.
"On the same day that Erika was wanting to take on her own advisor at over £100,000 we were talking about cutting subsidiaries for school buses. I can't sit there and let that go unnoticed that's outrageous.
"I was completely ignored and it was pointless sitting there doing nothing whilst earning a large salary."
Commenting on the situation Councillor Frank Keegan said "I am very sad and disappointed at this news. The NHS is transferring workload to local Councils, and I had hoped that because of his vast NHS experience, Cllr Hayes would have led the elected Member commentary on whether we were receiving sufficient resources for the tasks being undertaken. If he has resigned, he must have been very frustrated with the support he was receiving in carrying out this important role.
"The failure to support Cllr Hayes will have financial implications for Cheshire East, I believe."
The Council have stated it will not be making any further comment at this time.
Comments
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If this statement, taken from the article above is what is currently happening to Council Portfolio holders, is is any wonder that our services are being shut down?
Empower Cards which are meaningless, have replaced Community Transport for the most vulnerable members of our community. That removes most of their social life, as anyone can readily see. In Knutsford, with only two days notice, vulnerable Adult Service Users, were deprived oftheir Services with two days notice, just after the Council had stated they would not be touched until 2012. I looked at my watch. It is not 2012 yet. So that indicates that someone at the Council was lying to Service Users.
Bexton Court, in Knutsford, was shut down without proper consultation, leaving the old and frail blown like dried leaves across the County, into places which cannot really be overseen by those who care for them. How safe, how happy, and how well are they cared for now? What is enforced long distance travel doing to their health and wellbeing?
Time to change the Council, A Vote of no confidence by 5 Cabinet members is glaringly high, and seems to show that this Council is up to no good.
And if it really is 'up to' employing an unnecessary advisor, on £100,000 of our Council Tax, it does make one wonder whether there is an element of nepotism, coming into play.
Wesley Fitzgerald is no more than an elected representative, who is in place 'to serve the public good'. Is he doing that?
Erika Wenzel, is an employee of the public, via their representative Councillors. She has no right to filng up to £100,000 about.. unless she is going to spend her back-wages to cover that cost.
Is she?
Peter Hayes has undoubted experience and was a great cabinet asset, especially to make sure the fair and equitable transfer of these services , and the fair value of budget to deliver them.
We dont know who this £100,000 employee will be, they may be a real superstar and have a strong positive impact on the leadership of CEC, we must not prejudge them. However their salary is about 8 times the extra Peter Hayes was being paid to be on cabinet, I hope this superstar can deliver 8 times as much as Peter, a heavy expection.