WHY CHESHIRE EAST? (EDITORIAL)

WHY CHESHIRE EAST?

The old order changes. Frank and Edna Bailey pictured in 1972.

Frank was the last Chairman of the Middlewich Urban District Council and the town's first Mayor when the one time Royal Borough of Middlewich became a part of the District (later Borough) of Congleton in 1974.
Middlewich Town Council still soldiers on but on the 1st of April 2009 Congleton Borough Council disappeared to be replaced by Cheshire East Council covering, as its name suggests, the Eastern half of the old Cheshire County Council area. 
Thus Frank bridges the gap between two eras of local government.
Should you be wondering  why the slide depicting Frank and Edna is damaged, thereby hangs a tale.
A tale which we may decide to tell in the fullness of time...

by Dave Roberts

It may seem odd to people who are relatively new to this area that Middlewich, administratively speaking, is part of the Cheshire East Borough when its history and relationship with its near neighbours Northwich and Winsford would seem to indicate that its logical home would be in the Cheshire West & Chester area.

So why are we where we are?

When it comes to local government Middlewich finds itself where it is because of decisions made in the early 1970s.

In April 1974 Middlewich became part of Congleton Borough.
There had been talks about creating a new local authority for this area as far back as the 1930s when a ‘Mid-Cheshire Council’ was proposed, amalgamating Middlewich, Northwich and Winsford UDCs, but the traditional rivalry between the three towns and particularly between Middlewich and Winsford, based on historical factors concerning the salt industry, meant that nothing was done.

In the nineteenth century Winsford was able to exploit its position on the River Weaver to develop its salt industry. 

The salt could be sent straight down the river to the Mersey for export.
Middlewich, despite its pre-eminent position on the canal system, had no such advantage.
Plans to bring barges straight into the town centre via the Anderton Lift and the Big Lock never came to anything. Nor did a plan to canalise the River Dane or another to build a canal eastwards from Middlewich towards Macclesfield.

Winsford's salt industry boomed, and Middlewich's went into a decline.

Ironically, though, we had the last laugh when British Salt was built here in 1969.

Reform of the system was talked about incessantly during the sixties and early seventies, and several ideas were mooted for this area.

Middlewich could have found itself part of Stoke-On-Trent under one such idea; another was for us to be part of a ‘Super Council’ stretching from Sale in the north down to Stoke-on-Trent in the south.

By 1974 the Government had decided to act.

It was thought that councillors at UDC level did not have the experience and know-how to handle the ever more expensive and complicated business of running local authorities, and that the creation of larger ‘local government units’ was the best way to serve the public.

Talks were held at all levels about the way forward. 

The ‘Mid-Cheshire Council’ idea was resurrected but discounted for the same, familiar reason with one Middlewich Councillor saying that he would never serve on a council which included Winsford.

Eventually it was decided that a new council taking in Congleton, Alsager, and Sandbach and the rural areas between would be created.

In the opinion of many Middlewich was eventually included simply to 'make up the numbers’ – a local authority has to have the requisite number of rate-payers after all.

Simply, no one else wanted us.

The new Vale Royal most certainly didn’t.

In fact, if the truth were known, the new authority we ended up in probably didn’t either.

When the news broke that we were to be part of this new authority we couldn't believe it.

Our inclusion in the Congleton District, incidentally, led to Middlewich being on that little ‘peninsula’ of land, surrounded on three sides by another authority which looks so weird on the map.

Actually this situation is by no means new. Up until 1974 we were 'surrounded' on that same little peninsula by the territory of the Northwich Rural District Council.

Which explains why, for example, Wimboldsley and Sproston, though technically 'part' of Middlewich, have ex-council houses bearing the inscription 'NRDC'.

But, to paraphrase the immortal Goon Show, 'every town's gotta be somewhere', and Middlewich needed to be under the control of someone, somewhere.

So, for no better reason that that, as far as can be ascertained, we found ourselves 'lumped in' with Congleton. 

Of course we were left wondering 'Why Congleton?' Wasn’t Congleton somewhere on the other side of the county, near Macclesfield?

Whatever the ins and outs of this most unsatisfactory jiggery-pokery, eventually the steering group for the new council met to decide on a name for the new authority.

Congleton?

No. In fact the committee decided that the name should be ‘Daneborough’, reflecting the fact that the River Dane runs through our area.

Sleight of hand by officials at Congleton substituted the name ‘Congleton’ at the last minute, understandably giving people the idea that this was some kind of ‘takeover’ by Congleton.

It was, as they say, ‘bad PR’ and Middlewich people resented the new Congleton authority right from the start.

With good reason.

Incidentally I was working at Middlewich UDC just before the re-organisation and remember the Clerk to the Council, Ivan Glover, telling councillors that now was the time for them to introduce their own ‘pet schemes’ – swimming pools, leisure centres etc – and the new council would be duty bound to carry the work on.

A golden opportunity for us to get that swimming pool we’ve always wanted.

Heartbreakingly, and astonishingly, the council said that there was 'nothing that the town needed’.

And from the start it was patently obvious that this form of local government would lead to unfairness. What chance would a few councillors from Middlewich have when ranged against those from Congleton and Sandbach (where the main offices were situated).

We were all convinced that, just as we’d never heard of Congleton, they’d never heard of us.
We always suspected that, if there was any money to be spent, it would be spent in Congleton, Sandbach, Alsager – anywhere but Middlewich.

And I can’t help thinking we were right.
Certainly, as is apparent from the state of our town after the CBC years, they did very little for us.

Congleton Borough Council was hated so much that it’s hard to believe that another authority could enjoy even less esteem.

Cheshire East has managed it with ease.

It's only existed for ten years* and already its name is a hissing and a byword.

All the old complaints we heard about the CBC are made about Cheshire East, with a few thousand more thrown in for good measure.

The authority is perceived as 'not caring' about Middlewich, and whether or not this perception is justified, Cheshire East doesn't seem very bothered about correcting it.

And now, as power struggles between Macclesfield and Crewe rage, poor old Middlewich is even more isolated than it was before.

What’s going to become of us?

It seems very likely that in the years to come people will still be asking

Why Cheshire East?

*At the time this entry was updated on the 31st March 2019.

© Dave Roberts 2013

First published 29th January 2013.
Updated, reformatted and re-published 31st March 2019 (the eve of the tenth anniversary of the creation of Cheshire East Council)

EDITORIAL: THE MID-CHESHIRE RAIL LINK CAMPAIGN HEADS FOR SUCCESS

RAIL Magazine is published fortnightly by Bauer Media, Peterborough. It's available at all good newsagents, supermarkets and other outlets.

by Dave Roberts,

It's gratifying to note that RAIL Magazine, Britain's leading railway journal, continues to take an interest in our campaign to re-introduce a Crewe-Manchester passenger service via the Sandbach-Middlewich-Northwich line, and to build new stations at Middlewich and Gadbrook Park.

Paul Stephen's article (illustration above) is just the latest in a whole series of articles and features examining  in detail the proposals for this 'simplest of all rail re-openings' and coming down, not unnaturally, on the 'yes' side.

Paul's article reports that Rail Minister Paul Maynard, 'in response to lobbying from the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and local MP Esther McVey (Conservative, Tatton)' has now 'instructed the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to create a working group to examine proposals for re-opening, including the construction of new stations at Middlewich and Gadbrook park'.

It goes on to say, 'the campaign received a further boost on November 30th when Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling said he was 'sympathetic' to the idea of restoring scheduled passenger services, and that he had asked Transport for the North (TfN) to consider its inclusion in TfN's Strategic Transport Plan and long-term investment programme once it becomes a sub-national transport authority in April.'

MCRLC chairman Stephen Dent paid tribute to our three local MPs Fiona Bruce (Congleton), Esther McVey (Tatton) and Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) for their persistence in keeping the proposals before Parliament and the public and in bringing them to the attention of the Secretary of State.

He says, 'my view is that we have done our job now in getting (the proposals) passed over to the proper authorities. We will continue to work in partnership with them and keep local stakeholders informed of further developments.'

That last sentence is important. Arguably the campaign could be said to have done its job when we published and widely distributed the business case for the re-opening a few years ago.

In fact we could be said to have done our job when the second of our feasibility studies was published in 2009, showing beyond any doubt that the re-opening was  an eminently practical proposition with a cost:benefit ratio of an astonishing 1:5 (this fact alone, by the way, should, in the opinion of many in the rail industry, have ensured that the proposals were given serious consideration).

But as we all know, there can be no resting on laurels  when you're pushing for something as vitally important to the local area as this scheme.

The campaign can only really end when the first train runs, and I'm sure that day can't be too far off now. 

For a while now I've been telling anyone who was prepared to listen (and many others besides) that the re-opening of this line to passengers and the building of the two new stations is a matter of 'when' rather than 'if'.

My congratulations to Stephen and Samantha and to all the many people who are working hard to bring this much needed service back to Mid-Cheshire.

Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts is the Hon. President of the Mid-Cheshire Rail Link Campaign.

LINKS:

MID-CHESHIRE RAIL LINK CAMPAIGN (FACEBOOK)

THE MID-CHESHIRE RAIL LINK CAMPAIGN 1992-2015

RAIL MAGAZINE

PAUL STEPHENS (EMAIL LINK)
(Paul is RAIL Magazine's Assistant Features Editor)

'THE VOICE' ISSUE ONE, AUTUMN 2017(EDITORIAL).

by Dave Roberts

THE VOICE

Cheshire East's new magazine for residents

We feel that it's only right that this review of Cheshire East's new initiative - The Voice - should come under the heading of an 'Editorial'.

It's something we very seldom do. In fact there has only ever been one Diary Editorial before this, and that was on the vexed question of the bypass. It was deleted soon after publication and now exists only as a file, somewhere in our archives.

But please bear in mind that the views expressed in this Diary entry are solely those of the editor.

Cheshire East Council

First of all, it has to be said that there's a lot that's worthwhile in The Voice (issue number one, Autumn 2017, out now).

Those of us who are beyond the first flush of youth will be interested in the article about the council's 'care and repair' service (page 8) which can take a lot of the hassle out of arranging household modifications such as new central heating systems, new bathrooms and kitchens and all the other things we all need to keep us safe and independent as we grow older.

There are articles about Fostering (page 12) and Adoption (page 13), getting a flu jab (page 18) and 'News Bulletin' (page 4) has a round-up of good news stories about the Borough.

'Families Matter' (page 10) brings us up to date on the services provided by the Council's children's and family centres which provide support to families throughout Cheshire East.

And there's an interesting piece about the dramatic re-construction of the trial of Alan Turing at the Courthouse Hotel in Knutsford - the very place where the original trial took place 65 years earlier when the hotel was Knutsford's courthouse (page 11).

So far so good. 

I'm sure that those of us here in Middlewich are happy to know about all these things and these pages are, perhaps, something of an antidote to the relentless negative publicity which Cheshire East, some might say with good reason, receives.

It is, unfortunately, when we start to peruse the other pages - the pages where our Borough Council attempts to 'blow its own trumpet' and tell us of achievements in various part of Cheshire East, that the wheels fall off.

I draw your attention to page 6 of The Voice and two-page spread simply entitled 'Regeneration Plans'. Here we learn that 'There's no place like Macclesfield'. They're right, of course. Macclesfield is lovely, and often under- appreciated. And - good news folks! - it's going to get even lovelier with £30m of commercial investment going into the town, along with £1.4m of 'public realm' investment by Cheshire East. What it's all about, the magazine explains, in as horrible a piece of council-speak as you'll find anywhere, is to 'boost the existing town centre offer'. Hurrah!

Down the road apiece, in sunny Crewe, we can look forward to 'a town centre to be proud of'.  Just £48.3m to you, guvnor! Well worth it, of course, and looking to the future, when Crewe becomes part of the HS2 network, worth every penny. And it's all on top of the £25m already 'invested'. It naturally follows, at least CE thinks it does, that where the council sprinkles its 'seed money', private investors eagerly follow! Hurrah again!

In Congleton things are slightly more low-key, with only £1m of public realm investment aimed at...well, just making the town look nicer, really. We all want our town to look nicer, don't we? Isn't it great that we have a Borough Council that also wants to make our towns look nicer? Good old Congleton! Hurrah!

In Middlewich....sorry. Nothing found. I'll get back to you....

You needn't think, though, that the Ancient Royal Borough of Middlewich isn't mentioned at all in this new magazine.

We're right there on page 15 as part of an article called 'Crafting A Cleaner Borough', which is mostly about people picking up litter in Crewe (the Crewe 'Clean Team', you might say).

What used to be called 'Middlewich tip' is just one of an exciting list of 'Household Waste Recycling Centres' across Cheshire East:

Middlewich: Croxton Lane, Middlewich, CW10 9EZ. Tel: 01606 837128.

So Cheshire East does think about us! Think rubbish - think Middlewich! That's the Cheshire East way!

And that's not all! We're mentioned not once, but twice in The Voice. More on that later...

Next, if you have your own copy of The Voice to hand, you might like to turn to page 16 where we find an article called, 'Flying The Green Flag'.

'Cheshire East Council's parks are some of the very best in the UK - and that's official'

We know, we know! Although this article is really about the splendours of Tatton Park and the now refurbished Victorian Queen's Park in Crewe, we can't help feeling they've missed a trick by not including the magnificent Fountain Fields in Middlewich.

Our Middlewich Diary photographer was there only yesterday to capture the beauties of Autumn at Fountain Field...

STP (MD) 91017

The glory of Fountain Fields in Autumn. This magnificent floral display at Fountain Fields is just one of the ways in which Cheshire East Council enhances our lives.

...and so on to the 'What's On' section of The Voice. 

Since the Middlewich Diary started in 2011, we've become  used to the idea that there are so many events happening in the town that it's difficult to keep up with them and almost impossible to list them all.

The What's On section of The Voice redresses the balance somewhat by listing just one Middlewich event between now and Christmas.

There's a list of what they call 'Tree of Lights' (which should, probably, more correctly be called 'Trees of Lights', but no matter) and it's here that we find Middlewich's second mention:

Middlewich Tuesday 5th December.

Make a note!

Are we being unfair? Of course we are!

This is, after all, the first edition of The Voice and we can hardly expect everyone to get a look in.

You'll have noticed that Middlewich is not the only town to receive what looks like short shrift from the editorial team.

Sandbach, for example, doesn't seem to get much of a look in (though their Christmas Market is featured in 'What's On').

Nor, strangely, does Nantwich (except, again, in the What's On' section).

No doubt whatever the equivalents may be of the Middlewich Diary in those towns will also be sitting up and taking notice.

As our name implies, we can only speak for this town.

And these are early days.

We look forward to future editions of The Voice in which Cheshire East tells us how many millions they intend to spend to make our town look lovelier and boost our 'town centre offer'.

They might even spend a bit of money to make Fountain Fields even more gorgeous than it is now!

One last point. The way the blue C and the green E merge together in the magazine's logo somehow looks horribly familiar...

Could it be....?

Nah! Surely not...

THE VOICE (ONLINE VERSION)

There was much comment on social media about the first edition of The Voice, much of it centred on the perceived cost of producing the Newsletter four times a year. In response Cheshire East issued this statement:

CHESHIRE EAST STATEMENT

Review © Salt Town Productions 2017