Alderley Edge Parish Council has agreed to spend over £500,000 on the refurbishment of the Festival Hall.
Whilst work takes place to build a new medical centre at the front of the Festival Hall, the Parish Council will be pressing on with internal works to reshape and refurbish the hall.
The builders have produced a quote for £540,000 for the renovations to the hall and the extension, which is not a guaranteed price, and the councillors voted unanimously to approve this sum of money at the Finance Meeting on Monday 13th April.
Cllr Frank Keegan commented "What we are doing is approving a sum of money which can later be adjusted but the adjustment comes back to the Council for ratification."
He added "We are working on that figure now and if there is a change to that we come back just justify the change or not later."
The Vodafone mast has now been removed from the site and the power supply to the Arqiva mast has been diverted so the builders can get on and do the work for the side extension. Piling works are scheduled to start shortly and should take a week to 10 days. The steel should then be erected during the first or second week of May.
Meanwhile, the Parish Council is waiting for a letter from CEC regarding their pre-planning application to turn the Heyes Lane allotment site into a car park and for the building contract to be signed.
Speaking at the Parish Council meeting on Monday 13th April, Mike Williamson explained "At the moment we are still discussing liquidated damages, we are hoping to close that matter tomorrow and I believe that is the last hurdle to signing a building contract.
"Once the building contract has been signed it will then move on to the lease of the doctors and that should follow fairly soon."
Frank Keegan added "The building is going ahead very well. They are very confident it will be on target for the end of March but it depends if anything goes wrong."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Council says 'no' - the refurbishment of the building remains incomplete.
Council says 'yes' - we all pay for it without having been consulted in the first place.
If this Conservative Parish Council had been elected unopposed - if we at AlderleyEdgeFIRST hadn't already dipped our toes into the water - I would have found this really depressing news.
Now I hope some more 'undecided' voters might realise why we're standing.
Why we're standing for election to the Parish Council against the Conservatives - to try to bring some reality to what risks the PC takes with OUR public money.
Alderley Edge First really do have a huge task ahead of them.
Having declared a personal interest, a Councillor must, by law, recuse, i.e. not take any further part in discussions, meetings or making representations on behalf of the electorate, relating to the matter in question. Yet here we seem to have a curious case where a Cllr is not only doing all of the above (having previously denied any such interest for a considerable time) but there also does not appear to be the required competitive-tendering process being followed by AEPC (of course I may be wrong but public information is not one of the AEPC's better attributes). One might have thought that this last point could prove somewhat difficult in the future for the Cllrs or, possibly, ex-Cllrs.
Perhaps we are the victims of less than full disclosure of the facts, perhaps I have got the wrong end of the stick- (or the wrong stick entirely), perhaps Alderley is a candidate to feature in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs section?
But I regret that we deserve it. All the Conservative candidates in the last PC election were elected unopposed. Nobody stood against them, and this is the consequence.
AlderleyEdgeFIRST is here with nine of us standing for Parish Council seats - and more importantly Craig Browne standing, as an Independent, against Frank Keegan for Ward Councillor for Alderley Edge.
Wish us luck!
Back when the PC bought the Hall from MBC (for £1), it came with a list of needed repairs compiled by MBC.
The estimated cost of repairs was £480,000.
The PC got MBC to promise to pay that amount to the PC. They have been paying it as £15,000 p.a. ever since. It is to be hoped that as and when appropriate, MBC (as was)-CEC (as is) will stump up a large chunk.
" It is to be hoped that as and when appropriate, MBC (as was)-CEC (as is) will stump up a large chunk."
Hoped ? I take it there was no formal contract to guarantee this money from MBC or CE.
The sums don't add up here I'm afraid.
Oh dear, you have not failed to disappoint me.
You have I feel been caught out with the good news that most of the money to be spent on re-vitalising the festival Hall (a much valued community resource by the way) is not new money.
Perhaps those who have been 'attacking' the PC for monetary profligacy, in this context, should have checked their facts before trying to put the boot in. They only had to ask! The information is in the public domain.
All you can write in response is that you are not certain that the money will be forthcoming! The money is already forthcoming; read my above again!
Come on guys, accept that you/they made a mistake and then rejoice that the cunning PC are able to deliver an improved Festival Hall without the people of Alderley Edge having to stump up a large amount of dosh.
The only information I can see in the AEPC accounts is the £15,000 annual dowery. I can see a figure if £40,000 as a contingency for roof repairs. I can't see the figure of £480,000 to which you refer. Could you point me in the right direction please.
If the £15k is put to paying off an interest free loan on the £550k, it will take almost 37 years to repay it. If the loan is at a nominal 3%, the dowery will not even cover the interest.
This is without taking into consideration that the operation of the hall loses in the order of £40,000 per year. Once it is refurbished would you expect it to become profitable? Are there any figures or projections for this?
here goes with an answer and I am determined to make it as clear and accurate as possible.
1. the £15,000 is an annual payment on account of the total £480,000, which dear old MBC agreed to pay us.
The PC decided, back then, in debate during PC meetings, that we would not ask for the full amount as we (and this is my view only!) might be tempted to splurge it !
2. The £40,000 re. roof repairs is there as, at one time, it seemed likely that the roof would need urgent repairs. So the money was set aside. Good houskeeping? As it turned out, the roof wasn't in quite as bad a state as we feared and so the £40,000 wasn't spent. It will be.
3. The £15,000 is not an interest payment on any £550 loan.
4. Yes the Hall operates at a loss. Considering the state it was in when it was sold to the PC, by MBC-as was, you are lucky it operates at all! The annual loss/subsidy is coming down year by year. The current year's loss/subsidy will seem high as we have had to close the Hall during the current works.
5. Yes we expect the Hall to become profitable. Or at least break even. As the Hall is a community resource, we don't expect to make a profit from the people of the parish, who after all own the Hall.
6. If you believe, as I deduce from your entry, that the Hall should be run as a business, then I disagree with you. The Hall is a community building. It is a much loved facility. You cannot thus treat it as a business. If you did, then the losses/subsidy would perhaps mean that you would shut it ?
Thank you for answering my points in such a clear way. I appreciate it. If any of the incumbent PC are re-elected then I would hope it it you.