Labour will attempt to retain control of two seats on Alsager Town Council on Thursday during a by-election.
It is being held following the resignation in May of two party representatives for East Ward.
Six candidates have been nominated to become their replacements.
Labour is fielding two candidates, as are the Conservatives, while there is a candidate each for the Lib Dems and the Green Party.
Hoping to keep the seats for Labour will be Brian Drake and Lindsay Horne while Conservative candidate Amelia Helliwell will be hoping to join her mum Sue, a Tory representative, on the town council. The other Conservative candidate is Rosie Redstone.
Representing the Green Party will be Richard McCarthy, who stood as its candidate for the Congleton Constituency during the 2019 general election. Reg Kain is the Lib Dem candidate.
Labour’s former East Ward councillors Jo Dale and Julia Hawkins quit due to an alleged “serious safeguarding issue” and that as a result they could “no longer morally remain as councillors on Alsager Town Council”.
The alleged incident involved a 16-year-old boy during Labour’s North West regional conference in February last year.
In their resignation letter, the former town councillors said it was reported to relevant organisations and was “partially investigated with no further action taken” adding that “we did the right thing by reporting this issue, we are in absolutely no doubt about that and we would do the same again” and that “whistle blowers for safeguarding issues should always be protected and not demonised”.
But the investigation involving Cheshire East Council’s children’s safeguarding and quality assurance unit concluded that the allegation was “unfounded/false, which means there is enough evidence to disprove the allegation”.
Voting in Thursday’s East Ward by-election takes place from 7am-10pm at The Civic.
