THE thing about council stories is they are just not sexy. Being completely honest, frankly dull.

Who cares about precepts and budgets, environmental waste policy and arcane planning laws?

The other thing is councils have to plan for the future so a decision taken now may not have an effect for years and years.

Generally, people like to see cause and effect and when you don’t see the effect for five or six years, it’s difficult to backtrack and work out what the original cause was.

And by the time you see the effects of council decisions, it’s probably too late to do anything about it.

Councils have to look at the big picture and we would all hope they make their decisions based on the greater good and not on vested interests or dogmatic party political lines.

But when the broad strokes of council policy meet the narrow interests of the individual, that’s when, all of a sudden, council stories become interesting.

Take, for example, waste collection.

We all expect our bins to be emptied. We don’t think about it really, other than remembering if it’s a blue bin day or not.

But just think how you feel if the binmen miss collecting your bin. And it’s not that long ago there was a public furore when the council started charging £30 a year to collect garden waste – a classic example of broad council policy meeting narrow individual interest.

And just sometimes, the council – or its agents – gets it horribly wrong.

The disastrous plan to close some of the busiest and most popular libraries and replace them with Amazon-style lockers sparked a storm of protest seldom seen in the town, bringing a humiliating climbdown.

But frankly all of this is small beer in comparison to the proposals contained in the so-called Local Plan Preferred Development Option.

And there, in a nutshell, is the problem. Those five words – Local Plan Preferred Development Option – mean absolutely nothing to the man in the street. They are dull, council-speak words, They are not sexy, interesting words.

The council’s website goes on to state that the Local Plan: “Sets out the our proposed approach to meeting Warrington’s need for new homes and jobs between now and 2037. It also identifies the infrastructure required to ensure that Warrington’s growth is sustainable.”

Now I’m not accusing the council of trying to hide anything, far from it.

The consultation presentations taking place around the town are a clear indication it is meeting its obligation to consult with the public.

But if you get past the council speak (if you can stay awake long enough) and see what the council is saying, you can look behind the curtains and be staggered that the plan is to build 24,000 new homes.

Just think about it, yes 24,000 new homes in a borough that is already clogged up with traffic.

Yes, 24,000 homes in a town served by one hospital where it is almost impossible to park.

Yes, 24,000 homes in a town that has seen cutbacks to frontline services.

The 2011 census reported the average household size in the UK was 2.3 people. Now my maths may be a bit shaky but on those figures, we can reasonable expect another 55,200 people living in the town.

And where are those homes going to be built?

I understand land for 4,000 or so will be made available when the new Western Link road cuts its swathe from Walton to Penketh or Great Sankey, making use of a brownfield site.

But some of them will go on green belt land.

When the Local Plan is confirmed, that will become the cause. The effect may not be felt for years.

And when the bulldozers move in to start flattening the land at the back of your house, it will be too late to complain.

I’m not saying the proposals contained in the Local Plan are right or wrong.

What I am saying is make sure you find out about it and have your say before it’s too late.