Cheshire West and Cheshire ‘Working together’ consultation 2023

Between September and December 2023, Cheshire West and Cheshire Council held a consultation on the initial priorities identified for their 2024-2028 Borough Plan.

In our response, we welcomed certain key priorities but highlighted a number of areas of concern.

Key points from our response

‘Rural proofing’

For us, the overriding concern is that the document has not been ‘rural proofed’ – it doesn’t look at issues from the perspective of people who live in the countryside or of the countryside itself.

Citizen’s panel

In addition, we query how well the current Citizen’s Panel is working and how genuinely representative it is, given the desire for everyone to play their part. A search for ‘Citizen’s Panel’ on the CW&C website did not bring up any results, so more transparency is needed on this body and its discussions. With a number of Citizen’s Assemblies now in place around the country, it’s possible there are different models that could be more suitable.

Caring and sustainable communities

In response to the question as to how the council could achieve its caring communities priority, we raise the importance of having the right policies in place around air quality and other types of pollution that can affect health and working and living conditions.

On the priorities for sustainable communities, we support the actions flagged but note the need to add improved digital communication as a key means of supporting service accessibility and reducing car use and other travel.

Town and parish councils

A final comment we make is to suggest using town and parish councils to contribute more to decision making. The draft document does not mention town or parish councils anywhere.

One word description for the borough in 2028

Our answer to the question as to how we would like to be able to describe the borough in 2028 in one word was ‘ClimateReady’ (used by the Met Office as one word!).

CPRE Cheshire response to the CW&C Borough Plan consultation.

CW&C Borough Plan consultation information