What do you know about the investigation into the senior management at Cheshire East Council?

Unless you are part of that ‘inner circle’ of Tory grandees the answer is nothing.

You are, however paying for it (estimated at £1 million to date) but you will be told nothing.

What do you know about the Lyme Green fiasco that cost taxpayers circa £2 million?

Without the diligence of the local press and a handful of local residents who took photos and videos as evidence, the story would have never seen the light of day.

You may recall taxpayers also funded a £450,000 report into how Cheshire Wast Council gave itself permission to build a waste transfer station at Lyme Green.

It took months to prize that report from the grasp of CEC only to find that large parts of the report had been redacted to prevent residents learning the facts.

Fast forward to the current situation at Cheshire East where every effort has been made to thwart any attempt to obtain even a glimmer of understanding of why so many senior management have been suspended on full pay for so long.

Contrast that if you will with Cheshire Police who held a public hearing into the misconduct accusations against their own chief constable (reported live as it happened by the Guardian).

I’d say that was ‘transparent’ wouldn’t you?

It’s not a word you could attribute to Cheshire East, which even refuses to hold named votes so there is no public record of how councillors vote. Less ‘transparent’ they could not be.

You may wish to reflect on this when you cast your vote at the local elections on May 2, 2019.

By Vic Barlow