Could you be a town councillor for Macclesfield?

Community groups are being urged to throw their hats into the ring for the first ever Macclesfield town council elections.

Mayor of Macclesfield Coun Janet Jackson wants groups such as the Civic Society and Make it Macclesfield to put forward representatives when the public vote in the council next May.

Coun Jackson said: “I would urge community groups and organisations in the town to give serious thought to putting forward a representative for the council. That’s what the town council needs. It shouldn’t just be about politics.”

The mayor’s comments come after Cheshire East council’s constitution committee gave the green light to plans to give Macclesfield its own form of local governance.

Work is now underway to establish what form the new town council will take.

Some options on the table include electing between 12 and 24 councillors representing the existing borough wards: Broken Cross and Upton; Central; South; Tytherington; and West and Ivy; East and Hurdsfield.

Coun Jackson hopes that following the expected full council approval on December 11, the Macclesfield local service delivery committee (LSDC), made up of the 10 Cheshire East councillors who represent the borough’s 10 wards, will have a significant input in establishing the council. Coun Brendan Murphy is the new chairman of the LSDC.

He said: “I am still opposed to the creation of a another layer of local government and I don’t think the eight per cent vote in favour was sufficient to justify a constitutional change of such financial significance.

However, now that it seems Cheshire East wants to impose a town council on us, I will use my position to fight every inch of the way to get a town council with real powers, especially in the area of planning control.

“I want also to make sure we get monies and assets that we handed over to Cheshire East in 2009; they should be returned to Macclesfield.

“And it will be ridiculous if a Macclesfield Town council is barred from using its own town hall. These are the issues that we need to negotiate in the next six months.”