Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins MP, has formally requested that Chesterfield Borough Council review the future of the cash-strapped Staveley Town Council after a damning response to a constituency survey he performed across Staveley.

Staveley Town Council’s future came to prominence after the former leader was forced to ask Chesterfield Borough Council to bail out the Town Council amid a failure to pay suppliers and staff and widespread losses on Council ventures.

Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins wrote to constituents across Staveley following the loan to the Town Council to ascertain which Town Council services they valued and what their view was on the future of the third tier authority.

Over 700 Staveley constituents responded with an overwhelming majority saying that they didn’t value the services of the Town Council, rejected the idea of increasing the precept and calling for the abolition of the Town Council with assets and liabilities returning to Chesterfield Borough Council.

Specifically, 84% of respondents thought Staveley town Council did not provide good value for money; 90% said that there should be no increase to the Town Council precept and 83% calling for the abolition of the Town Council.

Now Toby Perkins has written to the leader of Chesterfield Borough Council Cllr Tricia Gilby formally requesting that the Council conduct a Community governance review to establish the views of other Staveley residents from outside the Chesterfield constituency, and establish the best way forward.

Toby Said: “It is clear that my constituents don’t value the services being provided, don’t believe that it provides value for money and wish to see the Council abolished. The responses to the survey also suggested that the tone of politics in Staveley was viewed as problematic, which was reflected in several Councillors being elected unopposed and low levels of engagement in the Town Council elections.”

“It is also troubling that whilst most people except that the Independents have been resoundingly rejected at the recent elections, the Town Council was unable to appoint a leader at their inaugural meeting, with the Liberal Democrats rejecting the opportunity to back the leader of the larger Labour group to try to resolve the affairs of the Council.”

I hope that the leader of the Council will now instruct the Borough Council to formally take the temperature of Staveley residents and assuming that it is line with that which I have received put in place the steps needed to abolish the Town Council.

There is a lot of exciting developments going ahead in Staveley as a result of Chesterfield Borough Council successfully securing Staveley Town deal funds, but the view of the people is that Staveley Town Council are more of a liability than an asset to those plans and I agree with them.”