CHESHIRE East Council is ‘fundamentally not delivering for residents’, the former leader has said.

On Tuesday, Cllr Michael Jones said he will quit as a councillor for Bunbury once the police probe into contracts awarded to his personal physiotherapist’s firm has concluded.

The former council leader said he believes CEC – which is now led by Cllr Rachel Bailey following his resignation in February – won’t ‘deliver in the future’.

“It’s hard to have a council that’s fundamentally not delivering for residents,” Cllr Jones told the Guardian.

“I feel they won’t deliver in the future, but they have a great leader in Rachel.

He added: “Council’s don’t really care about residents as they should. It’s not just Cheshire East Council, all the council’s around the country are the same because they are bureaucracy led.

“People like me shouldn’t get into politics. I get things done.”

During the end of his reign Cllr Jones faced mounting pressure over contracts given to Core Fit Ltd – which saw the council waive its own financial rules – to award contracts totalling £156,000.

“I don’t think the council made residents first,” Cllr Jones said. "They're becoming more officer-led, and that's a shame.

“Some people wanted to further bureaucracy. I didn’t want to further bureaucracy.”

A police investigation is still ongoing. Cllr Jones denies any wrongdoing.

In January, Cllr Hilda Gaddum, mayor of Cheshire East, called for the then-leader to resign during a BBC interview.

Cllr Jones stood down as council leader at the end of February citing ‘infighting’ in the Conservative party as the reason, but he kept his seat as a Bunbury councillor.

“It is distasteful when your own internal party attacks you,” Cllr Jones said.

Following months of speculation, Cllr Jones has now said he will exit politics altogether.

“After the election in 2015 I thought about whether I wanted to sit for another four years,” he said.

“I decided I didn’t want to do that, I think I achieved enough.

“I was working 90 hours a week. After four years, it was enough. It was affecting my health.”

Cllr Jones said he believed he ‘achieved a lot’ during his four years as council leader.

He cited bringing HS2 to Crewe as one of his biggest achievement and called the borough’s refuse collection service ‘one of the best in the country’.

“I think I have achieved a lot more than people thought I would,” he said.

“I don’t take the glory, I just get on with it.”