SATURDAY OPENING RETURNS AT ALDERLEY EDGE LIBRARY

I am pleased to share with residents the welcome news that from Saturday 1st October, Alderley Edge Library will once again be open between the hours of 09.30 and 13.00.

The Library Service has been beset by staffing issues since Alderley Edge Library was initially forced to close due to the pandemic, losing three members of staff in quick succession (one to retirement, one to ill health and another to alternative employment). It has taken some time to recruit and train new members of staff, but I am delighted to confirm that we are now up to a full complement once more.

In addition to opening between the hours of 09.30 and 17.00 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays, the return of Saturday mornings means that Alderley Edge Library is now back up to the pre-pandemic opening of 25 hours per week. The Library continues to be staffed with the help of local volunteers on Tuesday afternoons, when a range of alternative activities are also available.

To celebrate the return of Saturday mornings, I have changed my regular Community Surgery from the last Saturday in September to the first Saturday in October. I would therefore like to welcome residents who would like to discuss any community issue, to join me for a cuppa on Saturday 1st October anytime between 11am and 12noon.

CONGLETON ROAD REPAIR WORKS UNDERWAY

Earlier today, acting in my capacity as Chair of Cheshire East Council's Highways & Transport Committee, I took the opportunity to inspect repairs that are currently being carried out on Congleton Road, Nether Alderley. The Level 2 patching works, which began yesterday and are due to be completed tomorrow, were due to be carried out during the fourth quarter of 2022/23, but have been brought forward.

The additional £7m investment we are making as a Council this year has enabled these much overdue works to be carried out earlier than was originally programmed. A section of Congleton Road, from the junction with Whitebarn Road in Alderley Edge, to the junction with Church Lane in Nether Alderley, is benefitting from carriageway patching works at a cost of approximately £100,000.

The Site Manager explained to me that the contractor, Eurovia, are planing off, removing and relaying approximately 100 tonnes of tarmac during each of the three days over which the works are being completed. The intention is to carry out Level 2 carriageway patching during the current financial year and then to follow this up with Level 3 surface dressing, next year.

Level 3 surface dressing was recently applied to Macclesfield Road in Alderley Edge and the intention is for the same treatment to be applied to Congleton Road (from the de Trafford Arms in Alderley Edge, to the junction with Melrose Way in Nether Alderley) during the 2023/24 financial year. Unfortunately, due to cost pressures, it is not possible to carry out both jobs in the same financial year.

 

ADDED INVESTMENT IN LOCAL ROAD REPAIRS IN CONTEXT

As I'm sure many of you will already be aware, this week Cheshire East Highways have been carrying out surface dressing on Macclesfield Road (from the junction with Congleton Road in the village, to the junction with Birtles Lane in Over Alderley). I'm also sure you will agree that the result is a much improved road surface and driving experience.

Earlier this year, I reported that in addition to the £15m it receives as a grant from central government towards road repairs, Cheshire East Council had taken the decision to borrow and invest a further £7m this year to try and tackle the problem of our crumbling road infrastructure. £22m certainly sounds like a lot of money and so you might wonder why it is that all our roads aren't suddenly perfect.

Whilst the team were on site this week, I took the opportunity to ask the site manager two questions: (i) the extent of the works in square metres covered; and (ii) how much the project had cost the Council. His response was a staggering £328,386 and I thought residents would be interested to know what this entails: 

- traffic management, including road closures

- surface dressing (25,623 square metres, including materials)

- lining (replacing like for like)

- gully emptying (sweeping and emptying approximately 100 gullies)

This certainly helps to put that £22m in context. Clearly the work carried out on Macclesfield Road will vary from other projects across the borough, both in terms of length, traffic management and volume of materials used; however, if we assume that Macclesfield Road is an average sized project, the £22m will only fund 67 similar types of road repair project across the borough. Given that Cheshire East Highways manages 2,700km of road network, it's a sobering thought!

 

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.