Cheshire East leader says 'council is getting its house in order'

The leader of Cheshire East Council has said it ‘is getting its house in order’ following criticism about the recent scandals to hit the headlines.

Coun Rachel Bailey was speaking at a cabinet meeting last Tuesday in response to a question from Labour councillor Laura Jeuda, who had asked why the council was embarking on changing its constitution when ‘Cheshire East Council seems to be in a state of flux with senior officers missing and temporary officers in post’.

Coun Jeuda’s question follows the release of a petition calling for an independent inquiry into Cheshire East Council, which has now been signed almost 2,000 times.

Coun Bailey told the public meeting: “When I first became leader of this council there were grave concerns that whistle-blowing comments weren’t heard.

“A whistle-blowing was received and [our executive team] went through the process which has resulted in [a] cross-party disciplinary committee, which is considering that.

“In the interim, and as I said earlier this year, it is up to the IDC (independent disciplinary committee) to consider those matters but, in the meantime, our focus within Cheshire East is to continue to deliver services for our residents, to continue with our ambitious agenda not least matters that we have in front of us today like Macclesfield and Crewe.”

Kath O’Dwyer, the acting chief executive, told the meeting: “ I would say, and you may say of course I would, that I don’t believe this council is in the difficult state that some people seem to be stating that we are. We are dealing with historic matters but we are making sure that our current arrangements are as robust as possible.”

Mrs O’Dwyer said the senior management team is all taking advantage of support and expertise from colleagues outside of the authority.

She added: “We are dealing with a number of issues that have occurred in the past and I would like to give my reassurance to the residents of Cheshire East that we will continue to deal with those robustly, transparently and fairly and we will share information with our residents as often and as openly as we can.”