Just to let you all know that steps are being put in place to form a Town Council for Atherton with its own budget, elected councillors and Mayor. 2000 signatures are needed. This is an important move and needs everyone's support whether it be with getting signatures or attending meetings and helping out in any way possible.
There is a meeting at the Jubilee hall at 7.30pm on Tuesday 18th August, 2009. This is a public meeting. It will also cover the proposed closure of Hesketh Fletcher.
This was posted in the yahoo forum:
Councillor Norman Bradbury has started a petition as the first steps to secure
Atherton its own Town Council with it's own Councillors and own Mayor. It means
that even though Wigan will still control the purse strings, Atherton will have
a massively increased say as to how we are governed locally.
We already have a few hundred signatures and require around two thousand to
progress onto the next stage.
If all goes according to plan, and there is no reason why it won't, we could be
looking towards Atherton Town Council in as little as 18 months - 2 years.
As soon as we achieve the required numbers of signatures, it will be presented
to the Council chamber in Wiggin. They then HAVE to put it to the people of
Atherton in a referendum for the official say as to what the people of this town
would like. Once the referendum is complete (and I think we all know what the
result will be) Wiggin then have officially decide whether to allow it.
If they dare to say no, then it goes to Westminster for an appeal to the
Secretary of State. Seeing as it is official Government policy to allow towns to
have their own Council, the appeal would more than likely go our way.
So if you want Atherton to stand on it's own two feet, either find a petition to sign, or print out the petition + map and start to fill it with as many signatures as possible:
Click on the forms above to open and print.
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