Let us not fool ourselves – the loss of 2,200 jobs from AstraZeneca’s Alderley Park is a major blow to our region.

This will hit local businesses and the whole support network of contractors and retailers.

Why AZ would relocate from an established research and development facility in Cheshire only to spend £330m building a new one in Cambridge is a mystery. What does Cambridge have that Cheshire does not?

None the less, we are left with the consequences, which will have considerable repercussions, not the least of which will be housing.

Very soon 1,600 families will relocate to Cambridge. That’s more than the entire population growth of the Wilmslow/Macclesfield area in the last decade and will obviously reduce demand for homes.

Meanwhile, Cheshire East plans to build thousands of new houses across the green belt.

CEC needs to think very hard about this policy if it is not to trigger a wholesale decline in property values and a repetition of the abandoned developments seen across Spain, Portugal and the Irish Sea.

CEC’s continuing refusal of freedom of information requests and redactions when information finally appears does nothing to inspire confidence.

The redactions in the Wilson Bowden Macclesfield town centre contract on the grounds of ‘confidentiality’ are an insult to every taxpayer.

Do council members think we are sufficiently naive to believe that WB gave them such a great deal they don’t want any other authority to find out?

Come on – credit us with some intelligence. That’s the line used by every double-glazing salesman. ‘Don’t tell your neighbours about this or everyone will want the same deal’. Contrary to the commitment to ‘transparency’, communities are being denied the facts on major decisions affecting their future.

There is a photo currently sitting on my desk of a tight-rope walker stepping out into the abyss 1,500 feet over the Grand Canyon without a harness. That is precisely what we are doing with CEC.

Our children and grandchildren will not thank us for our recklessness.

We are the guardians of their future. We need to know every detail of every contract before decisions are made that will change our communities forever.

If there was ever a time to stand up for your children, this is it.