A partnership of three Cheshire councils is said to have emerged as an ‘early candidate’ for accelerated talks on devolution with the new Government.
Cheshire East Council agreed in June to discuss forming a combined authority with Cheshire West and Chester and Warrington councils and to seek government talks – but believed these would take up to a year.
However, following Labour’s General Election win, a new report from Cheshire East says it is ‘clear that the new Government is seeking to respond and drive forward discussions at pace’.
Initial conversations have shown that ministers consider a partnership between the three councils as ‘an early candidate for accelerated and proactive engagement to achieve a proposal’, the report says.
The Government would seek to start ‘detailed’ discussions in the next six to eight weeks, it adds.
The councils will discuss both a mayoral and non-mayoral model with ministers.
This week, ‘recognising that the Government wishes to move at pace’, Cheshire East members will consider setting up a member reference group to support discussions, made up of council and political group leaders.
