BIG PICTURE
to remain, were concerned at the apparent reluctance of MPs to honour democracy and the people’s EU Referendum mandate.
Conservatives in local councils across the UK bore the brunt of the public’s frustrations.
By autumn, our national party had a change of leader and a robust challenge to Remain factions within Parliament culminated in the December General Election.
The nation is still reeling from the results, as Labour and Liberal Democrat representation at Westminster was decimated and Boris Johnson immediately moved forward with the majority needed to meet Conservative election commitments.
Cheshire East Conservative members feel that the hard lessons local councils transmitted to Westminster in May, were accepted and responded to in ways that the electorate felt able to support in December.
So what does 2020 promise?
At local level, last May’s full council saw crossparty consensus to bring forward both a committee system of Governance by May 2020 and that the council acknowledge the climate change emergency - Cheshire
East Conservatives continue to stand by that consensus.
They were promises we made to the electorate and must be respected.
Our role as the Conservative opposition, is to make sure that the coalition do bring forward meaningful and sustainable policies.
The coalition has successfully brought forward the rolling policy programme of the previous Conservative administration (which we applaud), but we wait to see what the second phase of the Local Plan looks like and how the budget for the next three years will be managed.
Despite claims of ‘black holes’ and £8m deficits, the Conservative administration left a fully internally and externally audited balanced budget.
But the most important policy programmes for 2020 are those that we agreed together last May. The first, that a sustainable and comprehensive environment strategy, (originally planned for last July), accompanied by a robust action plan will come forward in
2020.
This must clearly outline the timeline for carbon neutrality across council activities by 2025.
Secondly the coalition honours the manifesto promises of its
Independent members to implement a wholly proportionate committee system of governance within 12 months.
This will ensure that Cheshire East Council accurately reflects the residents’ mandate of last May and offers assurance to those residents who are aggrieved that they ‘voted Independent but got Labour’.
Cheshire East Conservatives have a dual role, to lobby our own Government and MPs to ensure they deliver on Brexit and other policies, whilst also holding the Labour/Independent coalition to account.