HOSPICE LOTTERY
PUBLIC SHOULD GET BEHIND THE SILKMEN
HAVING just seen my local team, Hyde United, well beaten 3-1 by a strong, fast and aggressive Macclesfield FC, there is no doubt in my mind that the Silkmen will win another promotion this season, leading to them being only two promotions away from a return to the Football League.
Macclesfield had a large and vociferous following at Hyde, but one reason for their demise as Macclesfield Town FC was the poor support they received when they struggled to win games.
The problem for a professional football team in Macclesfield, and having worked in the town for a number of years I can say this with some authority, is that the majority of football fans support either United or City. It is to be hoped that, over the next few years, the Macclesfield public continue to get behind their team in large numbers, and turn up regularly to games at the Moss Rose – regardless of the results.
David S. Ainsworth
Denton Manchester
IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE FIGHT FOR KEY SERVICES
OPEN Letter to Sam Cocoran [Leader, East Cheshire Council]:
Easter weekend was most enjoyable, thank you, with time spent with family and grandchildren and Saturday at St Michaels in Macclesfield talking to children about the Easter story, a beautiful and humbling experience. The more that I learn about the challenges faced by local government the more empathy I have for your predicament.
However, my conviction that it is essential for us all to fight to maintain frontline services remains undimmed. We have spent generations building these services and once lost they will not return in our times.
My further conviction is that transparency and a deep partnership with your communities will give you the best chance of success. With this in mind I urge you to ensure that requests for detailed financial information relating to the running of the household and waste recycling centres are supplied without delay.
Where trust between yourselves and your communities has been damaged, repairing this is essential and an open-minded reset of relations with the people of Poynton regarding Poynton Pool would be invaluable. Getting the experts from all sides of the argument together and finding common ground would be a good start.
Consultants. Another bugbear. Expensive and not always useful or good value.
Wherever possible the first port of call when attempting to understand our needs must be our local parish and town councils who understand their communities better than anyone. We have expertise and will be more than willing to share this without charge. Let us be your consultants.
When looking for cost savings within Cheshire East, again, go to the people who know best. Your employees. They know where there is opportunity for reducing costs. Trust them and invest in them. A good mantra is to never replace a person with an IT system if that person is doing a good and valued job. People first: IT to help deliver not replace. Small scale introduction of IT incrementally works best and is much lower risk than the costly grandiose schemes loved by so many big organisations.
Special educational needs and disabilities. Costs out of control and breaking local councils. Change essential: pressure central government, make a fuss. Cheshire East cannot keep running up more debt. Shout from the rooftops that central government are not giving you the tools required to deliver the statutory duties that they place on you.
We are in a crisis and need to fight to not only survive with our services in place but to deliver better services more efficiently.
We will play our part as at last it has become apparent to us all that local government really does matter.
Chris Wellavize
THE winning numbers in the latest East Cheshire Hospice Lottery draw:
The rollover has not been won and is now up to £3,200.
- £1,000 winner 101749 (Newton le Willows)
- £100 winner 56395 (Macclesfield)
20 x £10 winners 101731 24379 69157 79979 67567 15551 101836 101700 40079 100276
21429 77057 31751 26448 101677 40045 5493 80630 31348 79090