Thursday 22 December 2011

What will Cheshire East do now?

The final Petition held signatures of 6507 people. It was presented to Cllr Roger West, Mayor of Cheshire East on Thursday 15 December 2011, at Congleton Town Hall. During the subsequent Full Council Meeting, as an explanation of the Petition was being given, the Mayor thought it good practice to heckle, within the allowed five minute slot. In doing that, he was effectively heckling the opinions of many Cheshire East Council taxpayers.

They signed to say:

S – O – S  - Save our Stanley Centre

We the undersigned

Petition Cheshire East Council & East Cheshire Hospital Trust:

SAVE OUR SOCIAL AND HEALTH CARE

 –

KEEP OUR SERVICES LOCAL

Keep OUR Stanley Centre for Disabled Adults
Return OUR Dementia Care Services
Return OUR Intermediate Hospital Ward
KAFKA Office, Holly House, Middlewich  Rd, Allostock, Knutsford WA16 9JX
PLACE of collection
NUMBER collected
Allostock
    59
Congleton
  182
Cranage
  128
Crewe
    67
Goostrey
  124
Holmes Chapel
  422
Knutsford
3081
Lower Peover
      8
Macclesfield
    50
Middlewich
  108
Mobberley
    82
Northwich
    23
Over Peover
    20
Parkgate
  433
Plumley
      4
Sandbach
  995
Toft
  258
Wilmslow
    38
Winsford
  149
Online
    59
Total
6290
Plus Stanley Centre Petition
   217  = 6507
Place names above refer to the places where the signatures were collected. There is an even split between Knutsford and the rest of Cheshire East and its borders, with 59 collected online.
Numbers above refer to signatures collected by Carers and other volunteers, across Cheshire East during the period
14 October 2011- 14 December 2011




They were collected from:

the Knutsford area - in excess of 3000
from towns and villages across Cheshire East and on its borders - in excess of 3000

from a Service user and his family - 217 signatures in respect of The Stanley Centre alone

This three part petition seems to have had the effect that Cheshire East has no idea what to do with it.

This is not a new Council. It is only following on from our historic Cheshire County Council, using the remnants of that body's web site, and that body's officers.

The petition clearly shows that many people refuse to accept that the vulnerable should be shunted about. So why did Cheshire East get it so wrong - and where is our democracy?

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