Cheshire East’s declaration that town centre management is to be ‘devolved’ is an interesting concept.

Towns wanting to hire the services of Diane Smith, CEC’s town manager, may do so at £13,600 for one day every week.

According to Coun Jamie Macrae, cabinet member for ‘prosperity’, this will save CEC £120k a year. Now, I know Ms Smith is extremely conscientious but at that rate she’d have to work about nine days a week to save £120K.

So what exactly is ‘devolvement’? Well, CEC says towns and parish councils can recoup this cost ‘through their precepting powers.’

Which I believe means passing it on to taxpayers and here’s where it gets interesting. Some of those taxpayers believe they’ve paid for it already and are now being asked to pay twice. Like shelling-out for your Tesco shopping only to discover the bread has been ‘devolved’ to your local bakery where you can pay for it again (or do without).

Now that wouldn’t really be ‘saving’ would it?

Taxpayers want to know what comes next. Meals on wheels ‘devolved’ to Domino’s Pizza with refuse collection by Biffa?

Here’s an idea: why not ‘devolve’ everything and just collect the taxes. Think how much CEC could ‘save’ with that strategy.

There’s no end to the possibilities. Maybe British Airways will charge for a round-trip ticket but ‘devolve’ the return leg to EasyJet? What about the ‘savings’ to be made in the NHS?

They could anaesthetise patients then perform operations on a ‘devolved’ pay and display basis.

Another corking idea from Cheshire East.