Audlem Parish Council Changes

Audlem Parish Council Changes 1 February 2023

The Chair, Derek Winskill has taken the decision to resign from the Parish Council as Chair and as a Councillor with effect from Friday 20th January, 2023.

This the second resignation recently, both for very similar reasons, the previous one being Ralph Warburton.

Both stayed with the Council throughout the unprecedented challenges that impacted Audlem PC after the 'alleged' fraud. This, and the ensuing outfall, put all our Councillors' roles into sharp contrast with those of other Councils.

Had they actually resigned when the problems came to light, then APC simply would not have been quorate and would have ceased to exist, for an indefinite period.

Under Section 91 of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), Cheshire East would have appointed a sufficient number of Parish Councillors from elsewhere on a temporary basis, to enable the Parish to continue to be supported. Clearly it's far preferable to have local Audlem people volunteering on behalf of the community rather than some random people plugging the gap.

We are all very grateful to Ralph and Dez for their continued personal commitment whilst an unusually high level of public scrutiny and the ensuing personal verbal/online criticism was experienced.

Dez and his partner, Lorna Matthews even undertook the street cleaning whilst Audlem had no lengsthman to perform the task.

They carried on doing their utmost for Audlem's community until more new Councillors had been co-opted to ensure APC is quorate and all of these new Councillors are determined to build on what has already been done.

APC's 8 Councillors are now being very capably led by their Vice-Chair and at the next scheduled meeting on February 13th a new Chair will be appointed.

We all wish Dez and Ralph well in whatever new activities they become involved with.