Handforth Town Council

Handford Parish Council gained prominence after an infamous online meeting in 2020 over the legitimacy of the clerk Jackie Weaver.

In 1936 the council and urban district were abolished as part of a Local Government Act 1929 county review order and the former area was split between Cheadle and Gatley and Wilmslow.

[3] Its early projects, such as the development of green belt land, the building of a war memorial, the creation of an after-school club, the creation of the parish council's Facebook page and installation of CCTV cameras were blocked by members of the council, mostly the Handforth Ratepayers.

Accusations of personal conflicts of interest were made by the Ratepayers and their rivals on the council, Improving Handforth, and relations between the two became increasingly fractious.

[5] The Independent described Handforth council meetings as "full of petty arguments about points of order and whether items had been agreed for the agenda – with the battle of ideas entirely absent.

"[6] A letter from David Brown, director of governance and compliance at Cheshire East Council, made references to councillors' behaviour in the past and alleged misconduct, including suggestions by unnamed councillors that elections should not be held:[7] As Monitoring Officer in Cheshire East I have received a multiplicity of complaints and referrals.

The most recent referrals relate to suggestions that some members of Handforth Parish Council have purported to take decisions that are plainly unlawful, and these decisions have resulted in expenditure of public funds.At an employment committee meeting held on 4 November 2020, three councillors – Brian Tolver, Aled Brewerton and Barry Burkhill – tried to suspend the clerk Ashley Comiskey Dawson.

[10] In a Zoom meeting of the Handforth Parish Council Planning and Environment Committee[11] on 10 December 2020, two camps formed over a bureaucratic dispute.

For this reason, council chairman Brian Tolver refused to accept the legality or legitimacy of the meeting, called by two other councillors, as no proper officer was present, saying that she had "no authority here", sentiments echoed by vice chair Aled Brewerton.

[13] On the evening of 4 February 2021, the video of the December meeting went viral, after being found by Shaan Ali, a 17-year-old local government enthusiast and politics A-Level student from East London.

This was then retweeted by thousands of accounts, including those of Piers Morgan, Richard Osman and Greg James, [16] leading to increased attention and the meeting going viral.

In the song, Weaver is affectionately hailed as "Britain’s answer to the American dream" and "the role model we all strive to be.

[31] Following the viral video, councillors received an unprecedented number of complaints from parishioners arguing the council was not fit for purpose.

[38][39] Burkhill served out his term of office as mayor, staying in post until May 2021 and then continued as a councillor,[40] but he quit the parish council the same month saying, "I have decided to concentrate on my Handforth Ratepayer Independent role at CEC, as too much of my time has been taken up in trying to deal with HPC's enduring problems.

[42] In August 2021, Weaver was the celebrity invited to open the annual Ambridge village fete in BBC Radio 4's long-running soap opera The Archers.

[43] The following February she was a contestant on BBC's Celebrity Mastermind, with a specialist subject of The Chronicles of Riddick, and a chosen charity of Cheshire Community Action.

[47] One concluded that during the 10 December 2020 meeting, Weaver did not "have the authority" to mute councillors and move them into the virtual waiting room, but that "Faced with what were unusual and difficult circumstances, and the deep-seated issues underpinning those circumstances, we can understand why Jackie Weaver acted as she did, despite her action being without any formal footing in terms of appropriate process and procedure".

The three incumbent Councillors returned in 2015, Kerry Burgess ("Independent and Protect Greenbelt"), Matthew Clark (Independent) and Kerry Sullivan (an ally of Councillors Samson and Smith in the East Ward, under the "Improving Handforth" banner) all declined to re-contest their seats.

However, after the election, both Aled Brewerton and Jean Thompson would side with the two "Handforth Ratepayers' Association" Councillors in South Ward, while Susan Moore would side with the two Independent Councillors in East Ward who had originally been elected under the "Improving Handforth" banner.