Handforth Parish Council really is the gift that keeps on giving and after becoming a global internet sensation, it’s little wonder the repercussions are still spreading like ripples from a stone in a pond.

National television news was all over the latest fractious Handforth Zoom meeting and if I have any advice to share it is to make sure to keep all members of the public on mute from start to finish.

I don’t claim to be an expert on Handforth’s particular problems but it’s obvious to everyone who witnessed the shambolic ‘Jackie Weaver’ episode that divisions run deep and probably won’t be resolved until there is a change of personnel – and they need an election for that.

Sadly, only one seat is up for grabs in the local elections on May 6 so it looks like the soap opera that is Handforth PC is going to run and run.

Anyway, back to the repercussions. There are moves afoot to censure Cheshire East Council’s Mayor, Cllr Barry Burkhill, over his role in the Jackie Weaver meeting.

A motion proposing a vote of no confidence in Cllr Burkhill (Independent) was brought forward by Cllr Liz Wardlaw at a full council meeting last week and sought to strip him of his mayoral responsibilities due to his involvement in the viral Handforth Parish Council meeting clip.

Actually, that really should be because of his lack of involvement with the proposal saying Cllr Burkhill ‘made no attempt to intervene as it became clear participants in that meeting were being bullied’.

Presenting the motion to council, Conservative Cllr Wardlaw said: “In December 2020 and not for the first time, Cheshire East Council unanimously approved a notice of motion condemning bullying.

“This meeting was chaired by Cllr Burkill just six days after the infamous Handforth Parish Council meeting. The irony of this will not be lost on any of us.”

But in best cliffhanger fashion, we’ll all have to wait for the next instalment because it very much looks like Cheshire East Council’s monitoring officer has read the council’s standing orders. Not only has he read them, it seems he also understands them.

He ruled before the meeting convened that the motion ‘may not proceed to debate and must be referred to the Standards Committee’.

The monitoring officer’s note to the council says: “The Standards Committee after receiving a full report of the investigation, hearing from the participants, considering the views of the independent person, ensuring a fair and impartial process is followed, may then refer the matter to full council with any findings or recommendation.”

Looks like we’re all going to have to wait for the outcome of this one. I wonder if it will become another viral hit. Somehow I doubt it.

While we’re on the subject of elections, I notice the Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner is up for election on May 6 as well. These polls should have taken place in May last year but were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

There’s a case to be made for postponing them again, maybe until the autumn, but the Conservative government is most insistent they are going ahead this time.

Call me cynical but I have a sneaky feeling the Tories will hope the public will have a very short memory about the shambles of its pandemic response and rely on a vaccine roll-out bounce.

So your choice of crime commissioner in May will be a case of ‘usual suspects. The two front-runners are Labour incumbent David Keane who will go head-to-head with Tory John Dwyer who was the very first Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner in 2012 but lost to Mr Keane in 2016.

Mr Keane was elected on a count of second preference votes and polled 84,601 votes when first and second preferences were added. Mr Dwyer received 81,652 votes so there wasn’t much between them last time round.

But here’s the thing, history dictates that the turnout for PCC elections is very low. Not many people can be bothered to make the effort to vote when the only issue on the ballot paper is who is going to be crime commissioner.

And for many people in Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester, that will be the only thing they will be voting for.

But that’s not the case in Halton and Warrington where both are having all-out council elections. This is exactly what happened in 2016 and that was reflected in the turnout with the figures significantly higher in Halton and Warrington than the rest of Cheshire.

Far be it from me to suggest people in Runcorn, Widnes and Warrington are more likely to vote for a Labour candidate, but I rather suspect that’s the case.

It’s probably true to say that I have, on occasion, been critical of Mr Keane’s tenure as PCC. But then again, I wasn’t a massive fan of Mr Dwyer when he was PCC either.
Expect another close-run battle on May 6. I do.