News in Macclesfield

Cheshire East Council's Remembrance Sunday commemorations have gone virtual this year as the second lockdown prevents people from gathering as normal.

The council has prepared a short virtual service led by the borough's mayor, Barry Burkhill and people have been urged to perform their own act of remembrance.

Macclesfield-based independent Estate Agents Holden and Prescott have been named as the Best Estate Agent in the UK by the Best Estate Agent Guide, beating over 25,000 other branches nationwide.

The BEAG awards, organized by Property Academy and supported by Rightmove, independently assessed the performance of all 15,000 estate agency brands nationwide, looking closely at 25,000 branches for sales and lettings to discover the agents that are the best in their field within marketing, results and customer service.

Police in Macclesfield are urging residents to review their home security measures as burglaries are expected to rise with the darker evenings.

DS Dave Jarvis, of the Macclesfield Local Policing Unit, said: "Investigations are ongoing in relation to the recent burglaries and we're following a number of lines of enquiry.

Children living in Cheshire East have a unique opportunity to tell world leaders how they feel about climate change.

The borough's library service is running a year-long project for children, the results from which will be shared with organisers of COP26 – the United Nations climate change conference, due to take place in Glasgow, in November 2021.

Virtual council meetings could continue once the coronavirus pandemic is over, according to Cheshire East councillor Amanda Stott.

Cllr Stott, the CEC cabinet member whose responsibilities include IT, told the LDRS that "the Local Government Association has been asked to lobby the government to retain the regulations, so as to enable local authorities to continue to hold formal virtual public meetings without any time limit".

The chief constable of Cheshire Police has joined his counterparts in forces across the North West to issue a warning to residents who breach Coronavirus restrictions as we head into the second lockdown.

In an open letter to the public, Darren Martland and his fellow police chiefs said they would be taking a "firmer stance" when it comes to the enforcement of the rules.

The proportion of positive coronavirus tests in Cheshire East has risen to 8.7 per cent over the last week, according to one Director of Public Health in the county.

Ian Ashworth told officials on Cheshire West's Covid-19 outbreak board that the CEC rise in positive tests were recorded in a week which saw a 13.6 per cent fall in the number of residents getting a test.

More than £600,000 has been spent on body-worn video cameras by Cheshire police since 2017, the LDRS can reveal.

A freedom of information request to the force shows that £535,000 was spent on equipping "frontline operational" officers with the technology since 2018, with another £90,000 for "taser officers and football spotters".

Cheshire East residents are being asked to give their views on proposals to control the number of houses in multiple occupation in parts of the borough and to raise their standards of accommodation.

Consultations have begun on proposed new planning rules concerning houses in multiple occupation, known as HMOs. Everyone, including residents, landlords and tenants, is invited to take part.

Cheshire East Council has extended the community response and recovery fund so that it can continue to support local organisations through this pandemic with a grant up to the value of £20,000.

The original aim of the Covid-19 community response and recovery fund was to support not for profit organisations to adapt to new ways of offering support to communities, both during and following the coronavirus pandemic, as well as maintain and continue to offer services whilst government restrictions are in place.