The former mayor has criticised Cheshire East's lack of support for the role, saying the council recently decided it wanted to keep a mayor and now it needs to back the new one.

Cllr Sarah Pochin's speech as outgoing mayor raised a few eyebrows at Tatton Park on Wednesday, and Congleton councillors were in attendance.

Speaking after the inauguration of new Cheshire East mayor David Marren, she told the guests at Tatton Park: "One of the reasons I accepted the role was to see for myself whether or not I thought the role of mayor of Cheshire East could add value to the community and to the council."

The councillor, who raised more than £25,000 for one of her chosen charities during her mayoral year, said she believed the role did benefit the community but she found the lack of support from councillors and officers at the council frustrating.

"In my year I discovered that there is sadly little support from members (councillors) for the mayor," she said.

"My fundraising at Dorfold Hall was attended by three members, my Polish event in Crewe was attended by one member and even the Ukrainian vigil was attended by only three members.

"Now, I know we're all busy, luckily it didn't make any difference to the success of the events - but that's not really the point."

She continued: "I also discovered in my year as mayor that there is very little thought given to, or appetite for using, the mayor by our officers."

She listed events the Cheshire East and town mayors had not been invited to but could have used to promote their towns and the borough.

"As we get back to whatever post-Covid normal is, I want to encourage members and officers to invite the mayor to promote things in the borough, to promote things for the council," she said.

"Use it or lose it as they say and that is what's going to happen, so use the mayor."

Cllr Pochin said she had enjoyed her time as mayor during 2021/22 and the role can benefit community groups and organisations by raising their profile.

She said the mayor can raise money for their chosen charities and can help to bring the community together – pointing out 450 people had attended the event she organised for the Polish community in Crewe.

See Also: New Mayor and Deputy Mayor appointed in packed Congleton Town Hall ceremony

Got an event going on in Congleton? Advertise it for FREE on our What's On section. 

Congleton: Have you signed up for our FREE Friday weekly newsletter? It contains each week's essential Congleton news stories, and one EXCLUSIVE article?

Close to 4000 of you have signed up already. Simply enter your email address in the shaded box below or on this link.

Free from pop-up ads, or unwanted surveys, Congleton Nub News is a quality online newspaper for our town.

You can find us on Facebook and Twitter.