Fourth council quits North-west assembly

Trafford council last week became the latest local authority to give notice to quit, following Cheshire, Congleton and Macclesfield, which all gave notice following last November’s public vote against an elected regional assembly.

Steve Machim, chief executive of the regional assembly, said the loss of the four councils would not affect the assembly’s ability to carry out its business.

The councils that have given notice will all remain fully paid-up members of the assembly until March 2006 at the earliest. Machim said: “Subscriptions are paid by 46 local authorities in the North-west, and even if [the councils that have given notice] withdraw in 2006/7 it represents something like 2% of our entire budget. It doesn’t really have a huge impact.”

The North-west assembly draws its membership from a range of public and private sector organisations. It began a review of its work and structure after last year’s “no” vote .

Under the assembly’s constitution, the four councils have until September 2006, at the earliest, to formalise their decision. Machim said that, by then, the review of the assembly should be complete.

He added: “We want to make sure that we weren’t just complacent and we were continuing to offer the services our members wanted.

“The first stage of the review will look at staffing and what we do, focusing on core functions and the second stage will be very much about our structures.”