It immediately became apparent that the Council officers weren't really clear on the rules and procedures we must follow - so it was therefore no surprise that the Trustees themselves were a little confused.
Then I later discussed it with some friends - none of whom were aware of what and who the trustees were. So I came to the conclusion it might be best to say a bit more about it here.
A good start is Wikipedia:
In England, charter trustees are set up to maintain the continuity of a town charter or city charter after a district with the status of a borough or city has been abolished, until such time as a parish council is established. Duties are limited to ceremonial activities such as the election of a mayor, and various other functions depending upon local customs and laws.The charter trustees are made up of local councillors in the district representing wards within the boundaries of the town/city. In the event that there are less than three district councillors for the former borough, qualified local electors may be co-opted to make the number up to three.
There are more than three of us - in fact I think there are 15. It's the Cheshire East members that represent Broken Cross, Prestbury and Tytherington, Macc Forest, Macc Town, and Macc West (my ward).
The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed a precept on your council tax bill of 27 pence. Which has raised approximately £5000 this year.
Essentially our only real purpose is to ensure continuity of a Mayor in Macclesfield - but this isn't so straight forward. A Mayor will incur costs to go about ceremonial duties and it's not clear at the moment if there's enough pennies in the kitty to support one. The Mayor was invited to hundreds of events last year, and although there's not likely to be as many this year we need to consider how we pay for all of these.
2 comments:
You say that the only function is retain a mayor, but is this the best way to use £5,000? For me a more important priority would be to establish an element of democracy and self-determination for the town of Macclesfield, i.e. some form of town council with a budget. We never even had this under MBC and now under Cheshire East where we are just another town, it is even more important.
It's considered that £5000 isn't enough to support a Mayor. Crewe have collected round £25k through a precept for this purpose and this is closer to the figure that we would need.
You make a valid point about local representation - but is a single Town Council for Macclesfield the right way to go about it?
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