As a borough councillor, the well-publicised Shopmobility saga gave a worrying and concerning insight into the running of Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) by its political administration.

Barely 13 months ago (4 February 2024 to be precise) CWaC released a media statement.

It said: "Maintaining a central presence in Chester where we see most use, with a satellite offer in Winsford, Northwich and Ellesmere Port, should make it as easy as possible for people to book and collect mobility equipment."

If it was an important service, why did the administration instruct its Labour Councillors to vote to close the Ellesmere Port, Northwich and Chester services on 15 February 2024?

Did councillors not realise what they were voting to do?

Do councillors not realise that actions taken at big meetings have effects on the everyday lives of residents?

Why did the political administration say one thing on 4 February and barely ten days later, vote through proposals to do the complete opposite?

The Chester service was later retained as part of a 25th U-turn in this year's Budget under substantial public pressure.

It was I who contacted the provider a week prior to that, as the local Conservative group planned a budget amendment to keep the service running.

I had to stop redundancy letters from being sent out and prevented kit from being sold off.

The provider only knew about the Council's U-turn two hours before it became public.

There had very little contact with the provider and CWaC at any stage of the closing down process, despite the provider telling me the service could have continued on a commercial basis with more notice.

But they didn't get this, because CWaC did not deliver on their promise of consulting on the future of the service last year.

This was truly a catalogue of errors.

Communication is something that the council must get better at: to service providers and residents. Otherwise, you end up with bad decisions and then U-turns being made in somewhat of a hurry.

That is no way to run a council.

Still, it was too late to save the Northwich and Ellesmere Port Shopmobility centres: a budget cut aimed at the most vulnerable and elderly of residents in our borough.

As one Conservative Councillor put it at last week's Budget Council meeting, this was a classic case of Labour councillors taking voters for granted in those areas.

We need a transparent and accountable body.

Not a political administration constantly trying to sneak decisions through under the guise of a budget headline.

We can do better.