A poverty emergency has been declared in Cheshire West and Chester, after councillors backed a motion from Winsford Dene representative Mandy Clare.

Cllr Clare's motion, first suggested back in July at Cabinet, was passed at last night's (October 22) full council meeting with 43 members voting in favour, five against, and 18 abstained.

As part of the move, CWAC will also establish a poverty advisory board.

At the meeting, Labour's Cllr Clare, who is the champion for poverty and inequality, said: "We need to support his motion not to score political points, but to put poverty alongside climate change as one of our priorities.

"You are at twice the risk of dying from Covid-19 if you are poor.

"The motion provides a solid basis to agree to put poverty at the top of the list."

However, some councillors believed a different approach should be taken to tackling the borough's poverty problem.

Conservative Cllr Neil Sullivan, representing Handbridge Park, responded: "I believe the best route out of poverty is to create decent jobs. It cannot be done by the public sector.

"We need lifelong education to equip our residents of the future. One other key issue is expensive housing.

"We should keep direct and indirect taxes low [to help] — that includes council tax."

Conservative colleague Cllr Charles Fifield added: "Within this motion there is no reference with the council trying to work with employers and the job centre. Where is the reference to helping people with household budgeting?

"I cannot believe there is a motion which simply ignores the issue of employment and education."

Cllr Clare replied to this by saying: "I would like to reassure you that it is in there. We already do a lot of work with connecting people to job opportunities — but jobs have to pay a reasonable amount."

In declaring a poverty emergency, CWAC becomes one of the first UK councils to do so.