Cheshire memories: What the county council did for you

By Chester Chronicle on Mar 31, 09 08:28 AM in 1900-1999

Cheshire County Council closes for business today. Here its media relations manager IAN CALLISTER, the new Cheshire West & Chester's senior media relations manager, reflects on the outgoing 120-year-old authority.

Through its long history Cheshire County Council has always championed the cause of the county and its people.

It fought successfully to persuade the generals to retain the Cheshire Regiment - the last county regiment unchanged in the British Army - but sadly could not prevent its recent amalgamation into the Mercian Brigade.

CCC fought for the Vauxhall car workers threatened with redundancy, farmers hit by the Foot and Mouth scourge and took on the giant Halifax Building Society over its issue of a single share payment to groups of adults with learning difficulties.

In 2000 the authority hired its own oil tanker to collect vital petrol- with the agreement of the pickets - from Stanlow refinery during the fuel dispute. Petrol was needed to enable care workers to reach thousands of housebound clients.

It led the fight against several Foot and Mouth outbreaks- the last in 2001, after which it the council, with partners, formed a Rural Task force to spearhead rural regeneration in the ravaged countryside.

CCC sent a fleet of Yellow buses to recover its school parties from a shell shocked London during the bombings in 77 and brought a party of Knutsford High School children home from Beijing during the Sars outbreak.

And more recently a 300-strong combined services team kept the county moving when gale-force winds brought hundreds of trees crashing down on 3,000 miles of Cheshire Roads.

When Cheshire County Council was established in 1889 the county stretched from Little Meols on the tip of the Wirral in the West to the boundaries of Yorkshire at Tintwistle and Woodhead in the east.

It also included those areas south of Manchester now in Tameside, Stockport and Trafford, all of Warrington and Halton south of the Mersey.

Cheshire County Council launched its tenant starter farm scheme in 1908 and those who wish to get a foot on the agricultural career ladder can still do so today. The scheme celebrates its centenary this year.

And in the early 1980s, in response to national economic problems, it launched the country's first business generation centres, to encourage starter businesses.

In 1961 the authority saved Tatton Park by undertaking to fund and manage one of the last great complete country house estates in England.

Five years later the authority opened the first countryside office in England, quickly followed by the first country Park ( Wirral Way) alongside 12 miles of disused railway line from Hooton to West Kirkby and the first countryside ranger.( same location).

The council was also instrumental in piecing together Cheshire's stunning Sandstone Trail which starts in Frodsham and end in Whitchurch.

It has always strongly supported the Cheshire Show - backing its revival in the seventies - and was instrumental in bringing the RHS Flower Show to Tatton.

Cheshire County Council was the Police Authority from 1949 until 95; the Fire Authority from 1948 until 95. It managed many health institutions until the formation of the National Health Service, also in '48.

Cheshire County Council is one of England's top education authorities. Year on year its pupils have exceeded national attainment averages.

It was probably the first education authority in England to issue anti-bullying advice to its 350 schools in 1996 and opened its first Eco school (Kingsmead) - much heralded by the DFES- in September 2004.

CCC highway engineers built the Cheshire sections of the M6 and M53 in the 1960s and two decades later introduced the world's most advanced ice prediction and forecasting system to protect the county's 3,000 miles of road.

In 1949 members founded the County Record Office.