HANDFORTH Parish Council has launched a new Facebook page to help it improve communication with residents.

At a meeting on Tuesday, October 11, councillors voted to launch a three-month trial for the page, which provides information on the council’s events and policies.

The motion was one three proposed at the meeting which aimed to increase transparency at Handforth Parish Council.

Councillors also voted unanimously to implement a new press and media policy, which ensures “effective two-way communications”, while plans for a sound recorder to be used by the clerk during meetings were deferred.

Cllr Kerry Sullivan, parish councillor for Handforth West, proposed the idea for discussion at the meeting after conducting a poll on the Handforth Community Facebook group, which gave an overwhelming backing to the proposal.

“Why would we not want to tell residents exactly what we are doing?” she said.

Cllr Ian Clark, parish councillor for Handforth South, questioned the purpose of the Facebook page.

“How does this differ from what we offer on our website? You can do anything on our website you can do on Facebook,” he said.

“It’s up to the individual to go on our website – it’s only a small proportion of our population that is on Facebook.”

Julie Smith has been campaigning for the parish council to have a Facebook page since February 2014.

She believes the page will help residents understand the role of their parish councillors and see what their money is going towards.

“I brought the idea up at the first meeting I went to, and the councillors and clerk at that time weren’t positive about it,” she told the Wilmslow Guardian following the meeting.

“Residents are paying for the parish council, and they have a right to know what is going on and what their elected councillors are doing.

“People I speak to on a daily basis aren’t sure what the council does – some people think it has something to do with the church because of the word ‘parish’.

“The only councillors who have anything to worry about with it are the ones that aren’t doing anything to serve the residents of Handforth.”

Residents can view the Facebook page at facebook.com/groups/102337730239175