ANNUAL PARISH MEETING (MY REPORT)

It was great to be joined on Monday evening at the Festival Hall, by almost 50 residents and 14 community groups, to hear about the excellent work everyone has been doing in our village over the last twelve months. I am also pleased to provide (below) a transcript of my Ward Councillor's report, for the benefit of any residents who were not able to be present in person at the meeting.

"Good evening everyone! It would be remiss of me not to begin by mentioning our library and the successful campaign to retain it over the last few months. I am sure that the tremendous response from so many residents, coupled with the petition led by Alice & Iris from the Primary School, played a huge part in helping Cheshire East to think again. The campaign brought to my mind a quote from the C19th philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, “there is no such cradle of democracy as the free public library; this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration. A library outranks any other one thing that a community can do to benefit its people, it is a never ending spring in the desert.” We must all now, as a community, come together and use the library as  often as we can, to make sure that what we have achieved together does not simply become a temporary stay of execution.

Looking back over the last twelve months, we have also seen a lot of activity in terms of Highways improvements. Hough Lane & Brook Lane have benefitted from surface treatment, whilst the junction of Brook Lane & Wilmslow Road has, after a long hard fight, finally been resurfaced within the last couple of months. The footpaths on Oakfield Road, Beech Close and Moss Road have been resurfaced, whilst I have also reported 110 potholes, 68 defective streetlights and 9 blocked gullies. Assessments have been carried out into the viability of a zebra crossing on Ryleys Lane, as well as into the installation of a second footpath over the railway bridge on London Road; unfortunately, both assessments concluded that neither scheme can go ahead. A further proposal for a one-way system on Chorley Hall Lane has been assessed and amended to traffic lights instead. I’m pleased to say that this will now enable two-way traffic, which was something that a lot of residents had voiced concerns to me about.

We have put forward fully costed and independently assessed options for the creation of three new car parks in the village, including 50 spaces at Whitehall Meadow (opposite Horseshoe Farm), 44 spaces at Heyes Lane Allotments and 35 extra spaces at Ryleys Lane; however, none of these options can be progressed further unless or until changes are made to the designation of existing greenbelt land around Alderley Edge; this is dependent upon the Cheshire East Local Plan (Part 2). Due in part to issues at Cheshire East that have been well-documented, the Local Plan is not expected to be signed off until Summer 2019 at the earliest. Until then, the hands of the current Parish Council and indeed the next Parish Council, will remain tied; so, for the time being, incremental gains in on-street parking remain our only option.

Looking forward to the next twelve months, we still await the details of CE Highways’ Capital Programme for 2018/19; however, working closely with officers, I have ensured that the following projects have been put forward for priority consideration: Heyes Lane & Wilmslow Road (resurfacing), Oakfield Road & Trafford Road (patching) and Stevens Street, Moss Lane & West Street for footpath resurfacing. In March, the Wilmslow Area Highways Group approved funding for the introduction of a one-way system on West Street, in order to improve the safety of the junction of West Street & South Street. The plans for this project should be available shortly and I will share them via my blog. In addition, the Parish Council will be paying for the creation of some additional on-street parking bays on Heyes Lane.

The greatest challenge we are likely to face as a community over the next twelve months will be in the form of Part 2 of the Cheshire East Local Plan (snappily entitled the Site Allocations Development Policies Document, or SADPD for short). During August/September, CEC will be launching a public consultation on its draft SADPD, which will set out its preferred options for the location of new housing around Alderley Edge between 2019 and 2030. It is likely that we will be asked to accommodate around 100 new homes over this period and not only the Parish Council, but also the Neighbourhood Plan team and all of us as a community will have a very important role to play in determining the kind of development we see. I am very clear that no single part of the village should either bear all the burden of the new development, nor all the benefits of the consequential infrastructure investment, but that these should be shared as fairly and as evenly as possible; however, I will need your support with this.

Could I finish by thanking everyone for the support they have given me over the last twelve months and I look forward to continuing to serve you to the best of my ability over the final twelve months of my current term of office."