Cheshire East Council
Type
Type	Unitary authority
History
Founded	1 April 2009
Preceded by	Cheshire County Council Congleton Borough Council Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council Macclesfield Borough Council
Leadership
Mayor of Cheshire East	Cllr Sarah Pochin[citation needed] since 19 April 2021
Leader of the Council	Cllr Sam Corcoran, Labour since 22 May 2019
Chief executive	Lorraine O'Donnell since 30 March 2020
Structure
Seats	82 councillors[1]
Political groups	Administration (41)   Labour (25)   Independent (17) Other parties (40)   Conservative (32)   Liberal Democrats (4)   'Real Independent Group' (2)   Independent - non grouped (2)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	Plurality-at-large
Last election	2 May 2019
Next election	4 May 2023
Meeting place
Westfields, Sandbach
Website
www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

Cheshire East Council is the local authority of the Borough of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government services including Council Tax billing, libraries, social services, processing planning applications, waste collection and disposal, and it is a local education authority. The council was first elected on 1 May 2008, a year before coming into its powers on 1 April 2009. After an election in May 2019, no party holds overall control.^[2] The civil parish of Sandbach hosts the administrative headquarters for the council.

Powers and functions

The local authority derives its powers and functions from the Local Government Act 1972 and subsequent legislation. For the purposes of local government, Cheshire East is within a non-metropolitan area of England. As a unitary authority, Cheshire East Council has the powers and functions of both a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. In its capacity as a district council it is a billing authority collecting Council Tax and business rates, it processes local planning applications, it is responsible for housing, waste collection and environmental health. In its capacity as a county council it is a local education authority, responsible for social services, libraries and waste disposal.

Political control

Since the first election to the council in 2008 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:^[3]

In May 2019, following local elections, the Conservatives lost control of the council for the first time since it was created in 2008. On 22 May 2019, the newly elected councillors met for the first time and elected Labour's Sam Corcoran as leader, after the party came to an agreement with independent councillors.^[2]

Police Investigations

Cheshire East Council has a number of outstanding Police Investigations. At one point there were 7 investigations, four of which are outlined below;

• Investigation into (former) Leader of the Council (Michael Jones) illegally awarding a contract to a friend (Amanda Moris of Core Fit) - Launched 2015 - dropped 2020 due to lack of evidence^[7]
• Investigation into a Grant to Berkeley Academy in Wistaston for £70,000 awarded outside of contract rules^[8] Dropped due to insufficient evidence ^[9]
• An investigation into allegations of manipulation of air pollution data ^[10]- ONGOING
• Land transfer for the ANSA Waste Management Facility in Middlewich^[11] - ONGOING