Handforth Parish Council is no more: Town authority changes name in bid to move on from viral video

It will now be known as... Handforth Town Council

It is perhaps Britain’s most (in)famous parish council. Or, rather, it was. Handforth Parish Council is no more.

The grassroots authority – which made global headlines after a video of members squabbling went viral – has changed its name in a bid to move on from the stigma of the footage.

Henceforth it will be known as… Handforth Town Council.

“What we’d like is, by definition of what we’re doing, people don’t refer to the viral issue any longer,” said John Smith, the authority’s new chair.

The council was catapulted into the international limelight in February after millions of people watched footage of an astonishing Zoom meeting that was posted on Twitter.

In it, no-nonsense chief officer Jackie Weaver is seen having to deal with a faction of three explosively aggressive members apparently trying to sabotage the gathering. After attempts at diplomacy fail, she goes nuclear – and boots all three off the call.

In the months since, the trio have all left the council, while Ms Weaver has become something of a national institution, feminist icon, and much-respected advocate of grassroots democracy.

“I never imagined someone would make me into a cake,” she told The Independent in May while discussing her new-found fame.

Now, the council, in Cheshire, is hoping the name-change will help it get back to basics.

“We’re just getting back to what we used to be doing, which was doing stuff for the town,” Mr Smith told the BBC. “We’re trying to deliver a number of projects that will improve people in Handforth’s lives.”

He added that the new name made more sense because of the size of the town, and said it would also be more inclusive by getting rid of a word – parish – which many people assumed was something to do with the Church.

Yet the new-look authority may in fact be living on borrowed time, whatever its moniker.

In September, Cheshire East Council – the higher-tier authority – launched a 12-week consultation on parish and town councils within its area.

It proposed merging Handforth with neighbouring councils in Wilmslow and Chorley.

Although all three authorities are against the plans, it is understood that Cheshire East feels the changes would better reflect the current population and geography of the three areas.