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Residents are urged to use their three votes

by Helen Clifton and Rachel Leslie
9/ 4/2008

VOTERS are being urged to influence the democratic future of the area by casting their vote for councillors for the new Cheshire East authority in the May 1 elections.

The eight district councils across the county have spent £50,000 - or 10 pence per person - on a multi-media campaign to spread the message about the new three votes system and the imminent shake up of Cheshire’s local government structure.

The ‘Use Your 3 Votes’ campaign, includes a mobile ‘ad-van’, press adverts, radio commercials, a dedicated website, online advertising and bus shelter ads, promoting the number of votes the electorate can cast in the forthcoming elections.

The two new unitary authority councils of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester will replace the existing Cheshire County Council and its seven borough - or district - councils on April 1, 2009.

Under the old system, Macclesfield Borough Council was represented by 38 councillors in 60 wards, but in the new Cheshire East council, there will be 12 wards with three representatives per ward, creating a total of 36 councillors for the district.

On May 1, electors can cast three votes to select the three candidates they would like to be councillors for their ward.

Vivienne Horton, chief executive for Macclesfield Borough Council and Returning Officer for Cheshire East, said she believed the campaign fee to promote the elections and new council was money well spent.

She added: "Because we will be reaching well over half a million people across Cheshire, the cost works out at about ten pence per person. That is good value for money so that people are aware of the opportunities to take up their right to vote."

Ann Bingham-Holmes, Returning Officer for Cheshire West and Chester, said the cost was less than the price of a letter sent out to every voter.

She added: "This is the very first change that has happened like this. It has worked very well in other authorities when it has happened in the past. The Government are monitoring us very closely on it."

Mrs Horton added: "Because they have busy lives people can't find the time to get along and vote. If they can’t do it in person, we are encouraging them to take up a postal or a proxy vote."

Voters however will only be casting their votes for a 'shadow council', who will decide on future priorities in time for the actual launch of the new council in one year’s time.

Business will be run as usual by the incumbent Macclesfield officers and councillors until Cheshire East takes over in 2009. Parish and town council elections are unaffected and will go ahead as normal alongside the other elections.

The new Cheshire East council will see Macclesfield merge with Congleton and Crewe and Nantwich in a new single tier council system.

To find out more visit www.useyour3votes.org.uk