WINSFORD Town Council has voted through radical plans to change the way it does business.

The newly elected council is controlled by the Winsford Salt of the Earth group of independent councillors (SOTE), who promised voters they would reduce unnecessary costs and simplify how the council does its work.

This includes getting rid of council committees, which are small groups of appointed councillors who do day-to-day work, such as monitoring how money is spent, and deciding on planning applications.

At an extraordinary meeting of the council on Wednesday, June 28, deputy mayor, SOTE Cllr Martin Beveridge, formally proposed the abolition of committees, which was was seconded by SOTE councillor, Wayne Fletcher.

Labour’s Nathan Pardoe, who was the only councillor to speak before the vote, urged caution, suggesting this was just 'change for change’s sake'.  

He added the new council should find out for themselves what works and what doesn't, then design its new structure when councillors have the knowledge and experience to do so.

He said: “All councils have committees. It’s perfectly normal. All councillors can attend them, as can the public and the press.

“There have been no reasons given for these changes.

“Ours has a typical structure, designed from six months of cross-party and staff consultation in the previous council.

“Even if the council agrees a new structure tonight, failure to appoint to these committees as they are means no work will happen until the July meeting.

"And that’s working on the assumption that council staff can rewrite all governance and policies in less than a month."

In the vote that followed, 9 of the 11 SOTE councillors voted in favour, while Cllrs Stella Mellor and Lorraine Murphy abstained.

Labour’s Cllr Pardoe was the only representitive to vote against the proposal.

After the meeting, SOTE councillor, Wayne Fletcher, said: “We have stopped the committee structure that was in place, and replaced it with one full committee to have public scrutiny where needed, and then everything this council does is in the public domain.

“We have established a working finance group to scrutinise the spend of the council and make sure we are not wasting the public’s money.

“We want to make things work for the town and these are the first steps.”