Creation of Macclesfield parish council confirmed

The Cheshire town is to get its own parish council, with an election for the new authority to be held on 7 May.

The parish council will be responsible for town centre management, allotments, public toilets, street furniture, Christmas lights, floral displays, and CCTV.

Macclesfield is currently the only area of Cheshire East which is unparished and does not have a local level of governance.

The creation of a parish council follows a review of community governance arrangements in Macclesfield by Cheshire East Council, with public consultations held in 2014.

The council will comprise of 12 councillors. Seven parish wards will be created, based on the existing borough ward boundaries and elections will be held on the same day as polling for the general election and borough council seats on Thursday 7 May 2015. Each councillor will serve for four years.

Cllr David Marren, chairman of Cheshire East Council's community governance review sub-committee, said: "Creating a parish council for Macclesfield will help improve community engagement and develop local democracy so that local services can better reflect local need and priorities.

"All Cheshire East will now be parished and that is in the interest of all taxpayers, enabling each local community to take responsibility for and pay for those local services they wish to have, that are not provided by Cheshire East across the whole borough."

The parish council will have a first-year budget of £575,640 raised by a parish precept, which will be £32.98 for a band D property.