New Council’s first meeting on Thursday

May 12 2008 by David Norbury, Chester Chronicle

THE new Cheshire West and Chester council, covering Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston and Vale Royal, is due to hold its inaugural annual meeting in Chester, the county’s historic capital on Thursday, May 15.

The shadow authority, which takes over next April, will gather in the Town Hall assembly room at 6.30pm on the same day the County Council holds its last annual meeting before it is abolished next Spring along with the district councils.

The City Council will hold its last annual meeting in the Town Hall this Wednesday at 5pm.

Jubilant Tories, who turned both parts of the county true blue after local government secretary Hazel Blears accepted the bid to split Cheshire into two, have elected Chester city councillor Mike Jones (Con, Tattenhall) as leader of the 55 strong Conservative group in Cheshire West and Chester.

County Hall Labour leader Derek Bateman will lead the 13 strong Labour opposition 30 years after he began campaigning on the county council.

The Liberal Democrats are reduced to just four seats on the 72 strong council, three of them in Winsford, having been the largest group at the Town Hall just a few years ago.

City Cllr Bob Thompson (Lib Dem, Hoole Groves), the sole Chester Lib Dem on the authority, has been elected deputy group leader.

The agenda for the meeting ranges from the election of a chairman and vice chairman of the shadow council and the appointment of a leader and deputy leader to the approval of councillors’ allowances.