A LABOUR COUNCIL FOR A FAIRER, GREENER FUTURE

 

 

The Labour Party offers a message of hope; that residents should be proud to live in Cheshire East and staff should be proud to work for their Council.

 

Four years ago a new Labour–Independent administration was formed that has brought stability to Cheshire East Council. The 2019 manifesto provided a blueprint for the work of the new administration. The delivery of the 2019 manifesto has provided a platform for further improvement at Cheshire East Council.

 

Under Labour leadership Cheshire East Council is on an improvement journey. In 2020 the independent Local Government Association reported on a ‘transformed’ culture at the Council and found “clear leadership and commitment, including the determination of councillors to drive and prioritise improvement. These messages were received from multiple levels within the organisation and this improvement has been embedded across multiple teams and locations.”

 

 

The Labour-led administration has:

ü Supported residents through the covid pandemic, with the People Helping People initiative, the Swab Squad, providing PPE to care homes and supporting the vaccination programme.

üDistributed Free School Meal vouchers in the October 2020 half term when the government and local Conservative MPs refused to provide support for hungry children

ü  Become one of the top ten per cent of English councils in getting out COVID grants to local businesses.

ü Achieved action on climate change, with a detailed Carbon Action Plan setting out how the Council will be carbon neutral by 2025 – and we are on track to meet that target, which is one of the most ambitious in the country.

ü  Improved planning polices and maintained a robust five-year housing land supply. The flood of speculative housing applications on greenfield sites has dried up.

ü  Strengthened Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems designs through a Supplementary Planning Document - promoting biodiversity and water management.

ü  Transformed the culture at the Council. The bullying culture that existed under the Conservatives is in the past – don’t let the Conservatives back in

ü  Introduced the Cleaner Crewe pilot project – addressing fly-tipping, cleaning up alleyways and restoring community pride

ü  Instigated regulation of Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

ü  Improved help for households on low incomes

ü  Strengthened bans of hunting with dogs, restrictions on badger culling and fracking on council land

ü  Achieved a fully-balanced 4-year budget (with none of the financial black holes and unachievable budget savings that occurred under the Conservatives)

 

 

 

We will achieve so much more if your votes put us in full control of Cheshire East Council.

 

 

  

CONTENTS

 

    1.   CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

 

2.   ADULTS AND HEALTH

 

3.    COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT

 

4.    ECONOMY AND GROWTH

 

5.    HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORT

 

6.  YOUR COUNCIL

 

 


 

1.   CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

 

Labour upheld the commitment in the 2019 manifesto and no Children’s Centres have been closed. We will continue to protect the remaining Children’s Centres/family hubs and will go further in promoting early help for those in need.

Labour will expand local provision for cared-for children, reducing the need for costly out-of-area private placements.

Labour has increased Special School provision in Cheshire East, with the expansion of Springfield School, but following a decade of Tory neglect there is still a shortage of Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision. Labour will ensure pupils with special educational needs have the right school placement, wherever possible within local mainstream schools and increase specialist SEN provision in Cheshire East.

Cheshire East schools are some of the lowest funded in the country and the SEN funding is based on out-of-date figures. Labour will lobby government for fairer funding for schools and SEN provision. We will promote closer working between agencies to ensure that educational opportunity for all remains a priority and vulnerable children do not get left behind.

Labour will increase access to child mental health services, prioritising earlier intervention, prevention and better access to talking therapies. We will promote greater awareness of the importance of wellbeing, self-esteem and resilience for children and young people.

Labour will seek to provide free school meals for all primary-school pupils and support schools providing breakfast clubs.

Labour will deliver a Youth Zone, providing a high-quality youth facility in Crewe.

We will protect communities and the green fields of Cheshire East from speculative housing applications that make millions for a few people and cause misery for many.

  

 Back to #CONTENTS

 

2.   ADULTS AND HEALTH

 

In terms of socioeconomic demographics, Cheshire East is a hugely unequal area, with a variance of over ten years in life expectancy between different areas of the borough. Labour will address health inequalities and address the wider determinants of health such as improved housing, healthy lifestyles and access to green spaces. We will continue the work of the Increasing Equality Commission.

Labour will be a strong voice within the Cheshire & Merseyside NHS Integrated Care System, demanding resource allocation is determined at a local level.

Labour will acknowledge the inextricable links between physical and mental health, with mental health put on an equal footing with physical health. We acknowledge that many in our community find life challenging and will promote agencies which support all parts of our community to talk, change and grow.

Labour will continue and expand community hubs, including the work of the Health & Wellbeing Bus to promote physical and mental health and support young people, including with sexual health advice.

Labour-led Cheshire East Council, as a Trailblazer council, has worked with the government to test out their social care reforms – providing useful feedback which led to a pause in implementing the scheme.

Labour will streamline the process for applying for blue badges.

Labour will expand the council social care workforce with decent pay and conditions. It will also promote social care as a career and, through commissioning, ensure care providers have good employment standards.

 

  

 Back to #CONTENTS

 

3.    COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT

 

In May 2019 the Labour-led Council committed to being carbon neutral by 2025, one of the most ambitious targets in the country, and then published a detailed Carbon Neutral Action Plan setting out how this would be achieved. Labour will continue to take action on climate change – completing the commitment for the Council to being carbon neutral by 2025 and working with businesses and residents to make the borough as a whole carbon neutral by 2045.

We will continue tree and shrub planting, including in urban areas, to support wildlife, improve air quality and help tackle climate change. We will support bee populations and biodiversity with rewilding environments and wildflower grass verges. Care will be taken over the location and selection of tree species to ensure that future root issues are not created. A tree maintenance policy has been adopted and tree maintenance will be improved.

The successful Cleaner Crewe Project will be rolled out in other areas of the borough where there is a high prevalence of fly-tipping, wheelie bins on streets and untidy alleyways, and the issue of unadopted alleyways will be addressed. We will have stronger enforcement against fly-tipping.

We will maintain and improve up-to-date planning policies to ensure that we don’t return to the free-for-all under the Conservatives where developers could pick and choose where to build houses. Since 2019, the Site Allocations and Development Policies Document has been steered through consultation and government approval, providing further protection from speculative planning applications. A Labour-run council will lobby government to allow the council to demand higher insulation and environmental standards in new-build houses.

In a second term, Labour will renew the Cheshire East Local Plan with a realistic housing-need figure that provides housing for local residents while protecting the beautiful Cheshire East countryside. Labour will implement a Supplementary Planning Document on Net Biodiversity Gain, uphold the Green Belt and strengthen environmental standards to stop indiscriminate building by commercial housebuilders intent on concreting over greenfield sites, which are cheaper to build on, and rake in vast profits for unscrupulous developers.

Labour will support local cultural forums including libraries and museums, bringing together local dramatic and musical societies, arts groups, photographic societies, and so on, as well as local sports councils – promoting health and wellbeing and building local communities.

Labour will invest in sport and leisure facilities – aiming to meet the requirements of the playing-pitch strategy, more sports pitches for the community and supporting grassroots clubs to develop.

We will build on the highly successful People Helping People scheme to address social isolation and reach more into communities which need help, working with local stakeholders to best reach those most in need.

We will look to improve services for help with benefits and advice for claimants.

Under Labour, Cheshire East Council has gained the Silver award under the Armed Forces Covenant. Now we should go for Gold.

Labour will continue to oppose fracking in Cheshire East.

Labour will maintain the bans on foxhunting and badger culling on council-controlled land. We will continue to promote the successful badger-vaccination schemes implemented in Cheshire East.

 

  

 Back to #CONTENTS


 

4.    ECONOMY AND GROWTH

 

We will increase the number of homes available for decent, secure social housing tenancies. We will expand the Housing Development Framework agreements with social housing providers to increase the availability of truly affordable housing, encourage development and regeneration of council owned brownfield sites and the delivery of grants to improve energy efficiency of buildings. Labour will hold developers to account to ensure they meet their affordable housing targets.

We will look into town-centre renewal, seeking government funding and private investment to improve the public realm, supporting new and independent traders as well as increasing town centre living.

We will work with partners to attract prospective employers to choose Cheshire East to relocate and expand their businesses.

We will review support for rough sleepers, ensuring providers are encouraged to train staff in more than basic mental health help and recovery so as to give more people a chance of having their own home, reducing the spiralling cost of supported accommodation for many years. We will ensure those without addictions or recovering can live in a dry house. 

We will work with town councils to promote town centres, including the regeneration of Crewe and Macclesfield town centres and the roll-out of town-centre vitality plans.

We will roll out the register of Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) that has been successfully trialled in Crewe and produce an information pack for new tenants/landlords.

Before the pandemic struck, visitors to Cheshire East contributed about £900m to the Cheshire East economy. We will promote Cheshire East as a visitor destination for potential visitors, both nationally and internationally. We will continue to support the award-winning weddings service as part of the Cheshire East visitor economy.

We will strengthen the Cheshire East cultural framework; to encourage both our fantastic local talent and to attract the best to work and to perform in our local communities.

 

 

Back to #CONTENTS

 

5. HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORT

 

When they ran the Council, the Conservatives outsourced highway maintenance, signing a 15- year contract in 2018 with a private company. The private company  was also responsible for quality control – ‘marking its own homework’. Labour is appointing a quality control officer to independently monitor quality control and ensure that the council is getting value for money.

A huge backlog of highways maintenance has built up over a decade of austerity and now stands at over £150 million. Central government has cut highways funding by £3 million a year. The Cheshire East Labour-led administration has allocated an extra £7 million in 2022/23 to ‘level 2 highways patching’ – pre-emptive work designed to prevent potholes forming in the winter. This work will help, but to clear the £150 million=-plus backlog we need government to Fix Our Funding to Fix Our Roads.

We will review car-parking charges on a town-by-town basis to support vibrant town centres and look into creative solutions to parking provision. We will make it easier to implement residents-only parking and shared-use schemes.

We will proactively measure air quality and work with local groups conducting air quality surveys. We will implement measures to help people to use cars less, with more frequent buses and trains, improved bus connectivity and better co-ordination between rail and bus services.

We will positively encourage active travel, including introducing highways regulations where necessary.

We will introduce a more widespread roll-out of electric car-charging facilities, ideally council owned, all as part of the drive to net zero.

We will expand in-house provision of home-to-school transport and, if the pilot is successful, expand the GoTo responsive bus service to other areas of Cheshire East. We will review late-night bus services to support the night-time economy.

A new Speed Management Strategy has been adopted in 2022. Labour will assist local communities to implement 20mph areas where appropriate and supported by local residents.

Labour will press central government to allow local authority-controlled bus services (as in Manchester, Liverpool and London).

   

 Back to #CONTENTS

 

6. YOUR COUNCIL

 

Cheshire East Council has had a clean ‘value-for-money’ audit report for several years and now has a fully balanced four-year budget – something never achieved under the Conservatives. Labour will continue to ensure that council funds are spent wisely to obtain maximum value for public services.

Cheshire East Council charges a premium council tax rate on long-term empty properties and has a council tax collection rate of over 99%.  Labour will ensure maximum funds from all sources are collected and are available for the Council to spend.

Labour will prioritise essential services to the most vulnerable.

We will build on the newly adopted Social Value Policy to promote ethical procurement, rewarding good employers and community wealth-building to keep more of the wealth created in the borough local.

Labour will continue to make sure that that councillors and officers of the council act ethically and adhere to the Nolan principles in their actions. Labour councillors have resisted moves by Conservatives to water down the Code of Conduct for councillors.

In order to recruit and retain staff in the council and its wholly-owned companies, we commit to develop means of improving terms and conditions for the lowest-paid employees within the constraints of nationally negotiated pay scales. Labour will make Cheshire East Council a proud Living Wage employer and build on our Social Value Policy to promote ethical procurement, rewarding good employers.

We will provide electric cars to key workers who travel to deliver council services (e.g. domiciliary care workers).

We will work with neighbouring councils to implement a fair employment charter across Cheshire and Warrington, as has been done in Manchester and Liverpool, to ensure that workers on council contracts have decent terms and conditions.

Labour will promote devolution of services, encourage town and parish councils to bid for services and support parish councils to form partnerships to deliver services and revitalise our town centres and high streets.

We will build on the successful apprenticeship scheme and increase the number of training and apprenticeship schemes in key shortage areas.

Virtual meetings were a great success, with increased attendances and involvement of the public. We will continue to protest at the government’s decision to ban virtual council meetings and will press for permission that council meetings  may be virtual or hybrid and held at times to maximise participation by both councillors and members of the public.

Labour will review the implementation of the new committee system to ensure that lessons are learned and internal democracy is further strengthened.

Labour will lobby central government to allow more flexible council tax banding so that those with millionaires’ mansions pay a fairer share.

 

  

 Back to #CONTENTS

 

    

A Labour Council in Cheshire East will deliver for everyone. We will build on the achievements of the last 4 years. Let’s do this together.

 

 

 

 Published and promoted by Sam Corcoran on behalf of Cheshire East Labour Group both at 7 Radbroke Close, Sandbach, Cheshire, CW11 1YT