"We are Derbyshire" Angry High Peak residents say they do not want to be part of MP’s Manchester plan

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Residents in the High Peak say they do not agree with MP Jon Pearce and want to remain as part of Derbyshire not Greater Manchester.

Wheels are in motion from London to abolish two-tier governments such as High Peak Borough and Derbyshire County Council and replace them with a unitary council.

High Peak MP Jon Pearce has said High Peak merging with councils in Greater Manchester such as Tameside or Stockport was a "no brainer" rather than staying under Derbyshire rule.

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This has been met by anger by High Peak residents who have formed a Facebook group against this union.

Angry High Peak residents do not want to be part of MP’s Manchester plan.Angry High Peak residents do not want to be part of MP’s Manchester plan.
Angry High Peak residents do not want to be part of MP’s Manchester plan.

One concerned resident said: “The greenbelts of the High Peak will disappear with houses from the Manchester overspill.”

Another said: “We are on the edge of all boroughs.

“We may as well stay in Derbyshire.”

One angry resident pointed out it took until April 1974 to get the High Peak recognised. They added: “People are not going to give that up in a hurry to become part of Stockport or Tameside.”

One called out the MP saying he should ‘listen to our views then instead of trying to drag us into Greater Manchester’.

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“You serve your constituents first not a party political power play.

“And for the record we do not feel ‘out on a limb’ in Derbyshire - we are Derbyshire.”

People say putting the High Peak under the umbrella of Greater Manchester is not how people in the borough see themselves.

Another said: “It’s very disappointing to see that Jon Pearce is still peddling the myth that High Peak residents gravitate towards Manchester for culture, health, education despite countless numbers of Hope Valley residents screaming at you that they don’t.

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“No bus service, unreliable hourly rail service and poor crumbling dangerous roads.

“We face east not west as we keep saying but you haven’t changed this script to reflect that. Does High Peak have to stay as one entity why not split it?”

Jon Pearce has written an open letter to Jim McMahon, the English Devolution minister, about the new plans.

He said: “For too long we have been the poor relations in Derbyshire.

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“This is a once in a generation opportunity and we must get it right for our children,

grandchildren and generations to come.”

Mr Pearce says he agrees that replacing smaller district councils and larger county councils with new single tier councils has the ‘potential to deliver better outcomes’ for constituents and it will save ‘significant money and improve accountability with fewer politicians who will be more able to focus on delivering for residents’.

He is urging the minister to not to place High Peak and Derbyshire into tranche 1 or the fast track as he calls it or to cancel May’s County Council elections.

He is asking for more time for the plans to be discussed so people of High Peak can ‘fully develop alternatives’.

Do you see yourself as having a Derbyshire or Manchester identity and why? What do you think should happen if we moved to a unitary government? Email your thoughts to [email protected]

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