CONGRATULATIONS to those elected to public office last Thursday, in particular Warrington’s own David Keane, who becomes Cheshire’s police and crime commissioner.

So Warrington is being offered a so-called ‘devolution’ deal by the Government and we’re all expected to clap our hands with delight.

Well I, for one, am not clapping. In so far as there is any devolution, it just transfers responsibility for government cuts.

A new combined authority with an elected mayor would have responsibility for health, housing, transport and planning but no extra money comes with these powers.

When people complain that services are being cut, treatments they want are not available and roads are full of potholes, the Government will simply say: “It’s all the fault of the mayor.”

It is the best con trick the Government has come up with since the previous one.

The deal is being negotiated behind closed doors and the public have no say.

The minister responsible didn’t allow my constituency to be represented at all – only the MP for Warrington South was invited.

This deal isn’t even for Warrington.

It is for Warrington, Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester.

Warrington, having fought to become a unitary authority and have control over its own affairs, is now expected to give away most of its powers to an elected mayor.

The public have generally rejected elected mayors when they have been asked.

There weren’t enough people wanting one in Warrington to even trigger a referendum but we are now told we’ll get one anyway.

So much for local democracy.

Just how much say will Warrington have in this new conglomerate?

The truth is our vote will count for very little compared to the two Cheshire authorities.

It is not devolution if we are run from Macclesfield or Congleton instead of London.

Nor is it clear how much this extra layer of bureaucracy will cost when we have to fund an elected mayor and his office on top of the local authorities we have.

True devolution gives power to recognised towns and communities, not to some arbitrary block the government has created.

We need more power here, in this town, and if the government meant what it said it would give us that.