THE leader of Cheshire East Council must write to Theresa May about budget pressures after 10 Conservative members sided with Labour during a vote.

Cllr Sam Corcoran, leader of CEC’s Labour opposition, called on CEC’s full council at Thursday’s meeting to support the Breaking Point campaign – led by the Local Government Association’s Labour group.

And following a debate which largely followed party lines, 10 Conservatives voted with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and some independent members on a scaled-down version of the motion.

It means that Cllr Rachel Bailey, CEC’s Conservative leader, will write to the Prime Minister – as well as Chancellor Philip Hammond and James Brokenshire, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.

Cllr Corcoran told the council: “A few years ago I made a plea for clarity from central Government over what funding CEC would receive in the future.

“A senior officer drily replied ‘in a few years time Cheshire East will get nothing at all – how much more certainty do you want?’

“Well CEC will be receiving no Government revenue support grant. You may think that means that central Government can’t take any more away from us, but you’d be wrong – tweaks to the New Home Bonus or business rates retention could have a significant financial impact on CEC.

“Although we could quite rightly talk about waste and misspending in CEC, there are times when we need to step back and look at the bigger picture. That’s what this motion is about.”

Cllr Corcoran added that £1.3 billion cuts are planned for council budgets nationwide, and CEC’s share of this is ‘millions of pounds’ – while costs to adult social care and children’s services continue to rise.

However, several cabinet members took turns to tell the opposition how services in their departments were not struggling due to Government cuts – with the standard of leisure facilities, schools and social care all praised by senior Conservative members.

Cllr Janet Clowes, cabinet member for adult social care and integration, insisted that she did not ‘recognise CEC as collapsing’ due to austerity.

She said: “Yes we have pressures, absolutely, and there are enough people in this room who sit at scrutiny to know exactly what they are.

“But what I would say is where there is necessity, it becomes the mother of invention, and what we have focused on throughout is cutting out the deadwood of administration to maintain the front-line service.

“Let us not think about austerity. Let us think about living within our means, which we have learned the hard way since 2010.

“And let us move forward to be sure that we actually build a future for our residents, their children and their grandchildren, of aspiration – free of debt.”

Following a suggestion to amend the motion to focus solely on writing to senior Government ministers about CEC’s funding pressures – rather than supporting the national LGA Breaking Point campaign – members approved it with the help of the 10 Conservative members.