CADENT GAS RETURN TO COMPLETE LONDON ROAD REPAIRS

As many of you will have seen on social media, over recent days I have been chasing Cadent Gas to sort out the mess they abandoned on London Road (outside the Bubble Room) more than two months ago. I am delighted to see that Cadent Gas have responded and engineers are once more on site today.

Whilst I was in the village earlier, I took the opportunity to speak to the site foreman, who explained that the issue had been caused when the gas pipes were relaid back in 2003. At the time, the adjacent water pipe was compromised as a result of the works, leading to an unseen egress of water underground. Over the intervening 19 years, the water has washed away the earth and this led to a sink hole appearing.

Cadent Gas will be carrying out a general tidying up of the site during the course of today and I have their assurance that they will return on Monday/Tuesday next week, to carry out the necessary repairs to the water pipe (the severed pipe can be seen in the photograph below). A further team will then come to backfill and resurface the road, with all works due for completion by Friday 5th August.

SOUTH STREET THREE DAY CLOSURE FOR SURFACE REPAIRS

I would like to take this opportunity to remind residents and visitors to Alderley Edge, that South Street will be closed from Wednesday 27th July (between 08.00 and 16.00) until Friday 29th July for surface repairs. Please note that South Street will be closed to all traffic between these times and that "No Parking" restrictions will also be in operation in order to allow the works to be completed.

Over the next three years, Cheshire East Council is investing £19m (including £7m this year and then £6m in 2023/24, followed by a further £6m in 2024/25) in its highways repair programme. Unfortunately, following a 23% reduction in government funding for road repairs last year, this additional investment is having to be funded through borrowing; however, it is necessary to prevent the further decline of our road network, with the council now facing a £180m backlog of repairs.

Using the additional investment, Level 2 patching works were carried out on Macclesfield Road earlier in the Spring and I am pleased to report that these will be reinforced with top level surface dressing. These works are also due to be carried out over a three day period later this week. Further patching works to Congleton Road (from the de Trafford Arms to Melrose Way) are planned later this year.

I would like to thank residents for their patience whilst these works are undertaken.

BARCLAYS ANNOUNCE CLOSURE OF ALDERLEY EDGE BRANCH

Today, I have received the following correspondence from the Director of Customer Care at Barclays, which I am publishing as an open letter as I'm aware that there has been a lot a speculation about this locally for some time. The decision is disappointing, as Barclays was the last remaining branch in Alderley Edge and (in addition to Post Office Counter Services) this leaves the village with just one remaining ATM facility, at TESCO.

Over the last few years, we have seen the closure of face-to-face facilities firstly at HSBC (at the Parade), then Natwest and most recently, RBS. Whilst the change to online banking by many customers is undeniable (probably further accelerated by the pandemic), these decisions fail to take account of the fact that there are still a number of people locally, especially elderly people, who are not online and who are unfamiliar with online banking.

It is a shame that the banks are unable to share resources and provide a single "banking hub" in Alderley Edge that would be accessible by all customers, but when I asked about this as a possibility following the closure of RBS, I was told that each bank has its own secure system which is incapable of being accessed or being made available for access by other providers.

"Dear Councillor, I would like to give you notice of a change Barclays is making in your area. On Wednesday 5^th October, we are closing our Alderley Edge branch.

The decision to close a branch is never an easy one, however, the way people bank today is unrecognisable from 50 years ago when almost every banking transaction took place in a branch. Now, that number is less than 10%, and we need to make sure that we are providing our services in ways that best reflect customers’ needs, including outside of traditional branch formats.

This ongoing change in behaviour means we are seeing a sustained fall in customer transactions across our network and this is reflected at the Alderley Edge branch where there has been a 30% reduction in counter transactions in the last twelve months, compared to the twelve months to March 2020. In addition, we can identify that 90% of our customers at the branch are using alternative ways in which to undertake their banking, including via the telephone, online and mobile app.

Despite the branch closure, we are confident that access to banking remains sufficient in the local community; everyday transactions can be completed at any Post Office, with the closest located at 12 West Street, Alderley Edge SK9 7EG (75 yards away). There is 1 free-to-use ATM within one mile, which is Tesco at 17-23 London Road, Alderley Edge SK9 7JT (100 yards away); while the closest Barclays branches are in Wilmslow (59 Grove Street, Wilmslow SK9 1ER) and Macclesfield (10 Market Place, Macclesfield SK10 1HA).

Although the branch is closing, we will still have an active presence in the community via new and alternative physical touchpoints. We plan to provide additional face-to-face access for banking services via one of our community locations – from the point of closure. Further details, including the timings and the location, will be communicated to our regular customers in the coming days. 

We appreciate that not all of our customers will adopt change at the same pace, and we would like to underline our commitment to supporting our vulnerable customers through this change. We have also identified that in total, just 9 regular customers use this branch exclusively for their banking and do not interact with us in other ways.  We will be making personal contact with all regular branch users to discuss their options and guide them through alternative ways to bank.

As part of this closure announcement we will follow the Access to Banking Standard. This means all of our local customers will be informed of our decision at least 12 weeks before the closure via letter. We will also make available our Reasons for Closure document.

We appreciate you may receive queries from your constituents on this matter, and want to make sure you are prepared with the relevant information in this event. Despite the closure of the branch, I hope you can agree that we remain committed to meeting customer needs in Alderley Edge.