Cllr
Wesley Fitzgerald, Leader of Cheshire East Council
Wesley Fitzgerald has been Leader of
Cheshire East Council from its inception as shadow authority in
2008 and since the new unitary authority’s launch on April 1, 2009,
until the present. His background and experience has been mainly in
the Army and in business as a director of a large international
retail organisation.
Councillor Fitzgerald said: “The objectives
of splitting the county into two unitary authorities are well under
way to being achieved – but it is still a work in progress.
“The objectives of delivering greater
efficiency and cost savings to taxpayers have been successfully
achieved to date. Since 2009, the Council has delivered savings of
£30m – via measures such as savings in commissioned services,
negotiating new contracts, streamlining staffing levels, improved
procurement methods and more efficient use of IT systems.
“The Council is on target to deliver even
more savings to taxpayers over the next two financial years – with
targets of saving £14.6m next year (2012/13) through greater
efficiencies and £9.5m the following year.
“In addition to the extremely tough
objectives we have set ourselves, we have had to tackle the
Chancellor’s requirements for further economies. These are also
being achieved.
Workforce
“Settling a workforce of 7,500 staff has
been a major challenge – particularly as the majority of staff had
previously been based in Chester, as part of the old county
council.
“An essential ingredient in settling a
workforce is the creation of the right culture for the
organisation, where staff feel a sense of ownership and belonging.
Happily, this is now firmly taking root.
Services
“The provision of Council services is now
more efficiently provided across Cheshire East. The unification of
the three districts of Crewe and Nantwich, Macclesfield and
Congleton has enabled us to devise and deliver a uniform service
across all areas of the Borough.
“An example of this has been our
transformation of recycling services, which has enabled us to
become the top authority in the North West for recycling.
“Since the Council introduced its Think
Silver, Think Recycling scheme in the south of the Borough in May
2011, the area’s dry recycling rate has increased by an impressive
400 tonnes a month. And we achieved a prolific recycling rate of
almost 50 per cent in 2009/10 – way ahead of the national average
of 40 per cent.
“As a Council we will not rest on our
laurels and will continue to strive to deliver ever better services
and greater value for money for the people of Cheshire East. One
example of this commitment is the merging of our information
centres with libraries to provide a one-stop-shop for
customers.
“Meanwhile, Cheshire East has embarked on a
major regeneration programme to create the jobs and prosperity of
the future.
“We are keen to attract and nurture new
businesses as well as foster the growth of our existing firms. We
firmly believe that prospering businesses are the key to creating
jobs, boosting our housing stock and raising standards of
living.
“To help achieve this, we are committed to
working in partnership with others to deliver increased prosperity
across Cheshire East. This can be seen, for example, in our
partnership work to shape economic masterplans to deliver the
regeneration of Macclesfield and Crewe and our close engagement
with the new Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership
to promote economic growth across the Borough and beyond.
Planning the Future
“In view of the challenging financial
environment, we recognise the need to be innovative in our thinking
and flexible in our actions to maximise revenues, develop new
income streams and help keep Council Tax as low as possible for
residents.
Health
“Uncertainty about central government plans
for a shake-up of health care delivery makes it very difficult to
plan for the future. However, we recognise that adult social care
and the provision of primary health care go hand in hand – and will
work with our NHS partners to help coordinate these two areas more
effectively.
“In order to optimise the health and
wellbeing of the people of Cheshire East we are also restructuring
our provision of leisure services.
“We recognise that improving leisure
facilities will help encourage more people to take steps to improve
their health and wellbeing.
“Our older population is growing faster
than the national average. We recognise that we must act now to
provide for the future needs of this section of the
population.”
How Can You be Contacted?
I can be contacted at Cheshire East Council, Westfields,
Middlewich Road, Sandbach, CW11 1HZ, tel 01270 529529 or via
email
