Alderley Edge Parish Council has agreed to pursue the option of buying back Town Centre Management Services from Cheshire East Council (CEC) - if some what reluctantly.
Last year the Parish Council were informed that CEC would no longer provide this resource in the current form and they were invited to enter into dialogue with Cheshire East if they wished to purchase town centre services from them.
Alderley Edge Parish Council agreed at their meeting on Monday, 12th March, that they would be prepared to consider paying CEC for Town Centre Management Services.
Chairman Cllr Mike Williamson told fellow councillors that he had attended a meeting with other parish and town councillors in the area where it was proposed that they purchase the services from a group of staff, which would include the current Town Centre Manager Diane Smith (pictured) and one or two other people.
He reported that councils had complained that the change was being pushed through too quickly and they hadn't been given time to consider how to finance it properly but nether the less CEC were pushing ahead with it.
Cllr Williamson said "We were told that to purchase two days per month of Diane Smith's time and four days a month of an assistant's time would cost £16,000 a year.
"If we don't engage with the process then we have two options, we can either do without the service all together which would be a great loss to us, or we buy the service privately."
Cllr Mary Maczkowiak said "It is like officers for sale, this is an absolute disgrace. I don't think they should be allowed to get away with this, I don't want to go down that route.
Cllr Joseph Bergin commented "They have got us over a barrel."
Cllr Frank Keegan added "I think we should agree to something that stalls it for a year. In the meantime we should be discussing with other parish and town councils what to do about it."
It was resolved that in principle the Parish Council are prepared to enter into a service level agreement but ultimately will not sign anything until it is in black and white.
The role of town centre manager for Alderley Edge is currently performed by Diane Smith (pictured), whose responsibility also covers several neighbouring towns and villages, including Wilmslow, Prestbury, Bollington and Knutsford.
Cheshire East Council are providing a grant to Alderley Edge Parish Council for the coming financial year to offset the cost for the provision of services in Macclesfield and Crewe that will no longer be provided in Alderley Edge, and other Cheshire East towns.
They did not reveal how much this grant was at the Parish Council meeting, although Cllr Keegan said that the amount had been confirmed by CEC. Wilmslow Town Council confirmed that they will receive £21,000 whilst Knutsford Town Council will receive £11,167.
A spokesman for Cheshire East Council said: "Residents of parished areas in Cheshire East pay an additional precept on their Council Tax for the delivery of some local services, such as town centre managers, public toilets and markets.
"There is currently no town council in either Crewe or Macclesfield. Therefore, some services are received in these areas that are charged as a precept in parished areas.
"To redress this, Cheshire East Council proposes to give a one-off grant to all town and parish councils in proportion to their individual Band D Council Tax base. Cheshire East will revisit the issue of charging a special expense in both Crewe and Macclesfield and is minded to make a charge from April 2013."
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In previous threads on this site there were a number of functions vaguley referred to, non of which sounded as though they warranted the expenditure of such large sums of (our) money