Discretionary funding available to local communities

Cheshire West & Chester Conservatives had planned to bring a motion to the full council last night seeking to double the discretionary funding available to local communities. At the last minute, this was reluctantly withdrawn due to extensive re-editing by the ruling Labour Administration.

Proposer of the Motion, Cllr Jill Houlbrook commented ’We are so disappointed that Labour just didn’t want to support a simple proposal and opted to amend the motion beyond all recognition, politicising it to the point we could no longer support it.’

Seconder of the Motions Cllr Lynn Riley added “We have all seen so many amazing local examples of community spirit throughout recent months, showing what local people can achieve together. We wanted to keep this energy and opportunity going and I fail to understand why Labour needed to put so many obstacles, process and prevarication in the way’”

Cllr Houlbrook added ‘On the same night that we have just declared a Poverty Emergency to run alongside the Climate Emergency, we have failed to add in the small amounts of funding that could make a huge impact at a local level. People have got used to things happening fast and very close to home. With some people in real need, we need to be able to act quickly without the bureaucracy that existed before the lockdown.”

Conservative Leader Cllr Margaret Parker shared the disappointment stating “Building stronger communities has to apply to all communities across the borough. Too much centralised thinking means that too many communities will continue to miss out. We passionately believe that our communities can achieve great things when local people just get on with - things that make a huge difference to local lives and environments.”