Your ideas for building a stronger future

Increase the number and total area of allotments

CWaC should seek urgently to identify areas for people to grow their own food.

Childrens Centre/free children sessions

With pubs, gyms, schools and paid for classes etc. allowed to open, when will free sessions (such as those at the children's centres) be running again? Our smallest people and parents with small children/babies are suffering with isolation and lack of socialisation. This will undoubtly have an impact on mental health.

Renegotiate the funding and lease terms of Storyhouse

Review their current package with the council to ensure that Storyhouse can survive this crisis.

Safer cycling to the city centre from the outskirts with dedicated cycle spaces and then much better provision of secure bicycle parking.

You have declared climate change an emergency, so treat it like one.

We are running out of time to prevent warming of over 2 degrees. Some effects of this would include over 90% of corals bleaching and pacific islands such as the Maldives and Nauru rendered uninhabitable by rising sea levels. This council has a responsibility not only to take immediate action by helping make it possible for people in Cheshire West live more responsibly and sustainably but to promote this and, alongside the youth senate, get other local authorities on board. This pandemic has shown that councils are capable of responding to disasters quickly, the climate must be treated the same. Also, using solar panels to at least partially power schools is a brilliant idea and something the council should try to roll out as quickly as possible.

Support Communities!

Where there's capacity and the will, support communities to get things done. Remove the bureaucracy that gets in the way of change.

Promote 'Local'

The Covid message in Wales is not 'stay alert' but 'stay local'. The more that people are remaining at home (and many of us will be forced to now simply due to child care) the more we are able to support the genuinely local economy - the corner shop, greengrocer, butcher, newsagent, cafe, pub etc - but also the local town centre. I've had to cancel my summer holiday, many others will have to. We have kids to entertain. Could we promote at-home-holidays, ultra local day trips you can make by bike/walking if you can, or car if you have to. could we promote street parties as a way for neighbours to thank each other, and to meet up after weeks of whats app? Wrexham do an annual play day when they convert the town centre into a family focused space. Could we copy it in Ellesmere Port, Winsford, Frodsham, Chester and wherever? Cahllenge local communities to out do each other

Collect better data on poverty and lobby government on poverty where necessary. +2.5 million unemployed by Christmas

Closely track disproportionate impacts of the dual crises of the economic downturn that has since been compounded by COVID, on those on already low incomes and on those newly tipped into poverty, whether working or unemployed/on benefits. Where we are constrained and unable to meet needs arising from disproportionate impacts on low income communities, we must at the very least work with others to flag this up with Government and keep communities informed that we have done this.

Graveyards

Our graveyard at St Laurence Church is closed and adopted by Cheshire West. Frequent concerns are expressed about its tidiness and grass length. Is it possible that local people could be encouraged to work with Cheshire West rather than being reliant on them? Could the insurance be sorted to allow that to happen?

Establish a new Working Group to map out realistic local living costs and examine what constitutes quality and sustainable employment.

This group could sit within the Poverty Truth Advisory Board, assess what the support/resource needs may be in identifying opportunities within the private sector but also with regards to Council contract renewal in re-shaping the local economy alongside dedicated Eco-Community Co-Op Hubs. Community-ownership, particularly forms based on flatter pay structures such as http://belfastcleaningsociety.com, can play their part in providing a meaningful route out of the crisis of low income and are an extremely positive, empowering means of galvanising local people within low income communities around shared projects that address local need. They have potential to re-build participation, confidence and viable incomes in more environmentally sustainable ways.

More supported volunteering

The Council needs to invest more in volunteer organisers, for example Green Space Rangers so that more volunteer hours can be effectively managed. This will have the added benefit of reducing demand on health and social care are members of the community will also have improved health and wellbeing

Just do something

One of the better aspects of the pandemic has been people looking out for neighbours and offering help. Sometimes we can all be too backwards at asking for, or offering help from friends and neighbours. So many things that sounds small add up to bigger things. We can't all do eveything, but we should all try to: support local shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs, vote, give blood, recycle, home compost, walk or cycle short journeys, pick up some roadside litter ocasionally, talk to people, join a local group or society and so on.