Devolution: Town name to remain in devolved Cheshire authority
Cheshire and Warrington is set to be the official name of a new combined authority for the area, after councillors rejected calls for it to be known only under the county name.There had been calls for the administrative area to be known simply as Cheshire but leaders of all three councils in the county voted to retain the name it has been working to at a meeting at Warrington Town Hall.Warrington Council leader Hans Mundry said it was "important for Warrington to be recognised" and noted the current name had been in use since the process started almost a decade ago.The three authorities have asked to be part of the devolution priority programme, with the government expected to make a decision on the county's future shortly.
Nick Mannion, leader of Cheshire East Council, said the planned name had never been raised as an issue with him."As we came into this lovely Georgian building, we noticed for many years Warrington was a county borough therefore effectively a unitary authority in its own right and then under local government reorganisation in 1974 it became part of Cheshire," he said.Karen Shore, deputy leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, highlighted the precedent of her authority including the city name in it."If we use the name Cheshire it might cause some confusion around Halton and I want to be inclusive and I'd support keeping Cheshire and Warrington," she said.Halton is in Cheshire but chose to join the Liverpool City Region in 2015.
Cheshire West and Chester leader Louise Gittins, chairman of the committee, also responded to questions from a union on the size of the proposed combined authority and any impact on the police and fire services in the area.The government's devolution white paper had expected strategic authorities to have a population of about 1.5 million or more, and local authorities to each have a population of 500,000.All three authorities have a population below 500,000 and their combined population is about 990,000.Ms Gittins said the size would not affect the area."Our devolution deal, because of the importance of what we have to offer, we have flexibility," she said.She added that the councils had "no ambitions to change any boundaries" such as health, fire or police.
Read more stories from Cheshire on the BBC and follow BBC North West on X. For more local politics coverage, BBC Politics North West is on BBC One on Sunday at 10:00am and on BBC iPlayer.
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