Around 120 local residents and business owners gathered at Alderley Edge Methodist Church to hear the Parish Council present the initial findings from their Car Park Review on Thursday evening (14th January).
All nine members of the Parish Council were present whilst Councillor Mike Dudley-Jones delivered the presentation.
He started off by saying "This is a consultation presentation. It is an opportunity for us as a Parish Council to present to you a sum of our findings and our recommendations. We are at a very early stage in this whole process. We are to start the process which will help you to decide what you would like us as a Parish Council to do for you because that's how it should work.
"We are not in charge in this village you have simply entrusted us with looking after some of the things that need to be looked after to make this village better and we promised you that we would look in to car parking and see if we could come up with some solutions and this is the start of that process.
"Nothing that you will hear or see tonight on the slides is set in stone in any way, but we had to make some sort of start to get the thinking process going and allow us to pile facts and figures on to some of the things that we could or maybe should do.
"The future of Alderley Edge is in the hands of all of us. We've got to understand that. It is not in the hands of the Parish Council, we have to understand it's in the hands of all of us and we've got to play our part in making this village better if we can.
"If we cannot agree on solutions to the car parking problem then nothing ladies and gentleman is going to happen. It is that simple and the problem will continue to get worse."
Mike Dudley-Jones then went through the presentation which covered the existing car parking available in the village, the parking review they carried out in July, August and October 2015 and the objectives of their parking strategy.
He then looked at the two sites they have identified as potential locations for new car parks, the Heyes Lane allotment site where they are proposing to build 42 spaces and Chorley Hall Lane Playing Fields where they are proposing to create 100 spaces and presented the associated costs which have provided by their consultants.
Once/if something is done at Heyes Lane and/or Chorley Hall Lane Cllr Dudley Jones went on to explain that they would turn their attention to the existing car parks at South Street and Ryleys Lane. They propose to change the regime at South Street to introduce similar costs and restrictions as the Waitrose car park and look at the possibility of increasing the capacity at Ryleys Lane by putting an extra deck in - to provide 33 spaces on the ground floor (which would be a loss of spaces as a result of making the layout more formal) and up to 32 spaces above.
Towards the end of the presentation Councillor Dudley Jones said "What we have focussed on it things we believe we can undertake on your behalf quite easily. They're not difficult to do they're just expensive but we would have to do it with Cheshire East's permission but more importantly we would have to do it with a mandate from you. You would have to say to us we would like you to do that in our village and that is a very important aspect of what we are talking about."
He also mentioned further measures which they can look at including schools drop off and pick zones, residents parking surplus (e.g. a couple of slots at the end of Clifton Street), seeking out incremental spaces around the village, residents renting out their driveways and walking or cycling with the provision of cycle racks.
Click here to view the Car Parking Review and Strategy presentation.
Concluding his presentation Cllr Mike Dudley Jones said "In summary the Parish Council has sought to present the best options, really if I can put it that way. We have tried to present to you things we do believe could work. They are not a whole solution, they do not take 300 cars off the road, they don't even take 247 cars off the road but would add new car parking spaces to make the Festival Hall viable and breathe life into that - make it a fun venue and make it a place where people can come. Add to the 41 spaces that would be available in the evening after the Medical Centre has gone home or at the weekend and there's a reasonable amount of parking there.
"We would add new spaces that were specifically designed for long term parking, it would clearly appear that people are somewhat uncomfortable with the location of that and again I understand there are some strong feelings about that and its very important that you feed back those strong feelings to us. But that would be within 5 minutes walk of the village and that would do much to change things particularly if the payment regime was what I would call tough.
"And to reconfigure the car parking in the village so that people who are coming to visit, people who are coming to eat and enjoy the bars and shop have somewhere to park and don't live in fear of having to drive around until they are almost giddy before they decide it would be much easier if they went to Marks and Spencer at Handforth Dean.
"And lastly ladies and gentleman in our summary we've been very careful to present to you costs, we haven't made them up, they've come to us with consultants. We've had to pay for some of the things but we husbanded that money very carefully and we haven't splatted it out even though we've put a little bit of a budget in next year because some things are going to have to be explored further on your behalf."
He added 'There really are no easy options. We could start off by doing nothing and that would mean they'd be no Heyes Lane car park and effectively the Festival Hall would die, I don't think as a village we can allow that to happen. I simply don't think we can do that but I don't know how else we keep it alive unless we put some access road and parking there.
"There would be no long term parking, certainly at Chorley Hall Lane if we do nothing, so there would be more on street parking, more people ringing up and finding they've got people parked and as more and more people come in the more likely it would be that they'd have their back end parked across your drive. And they'd be no increase in short term parking so again we'd go on frustrating not only our visitors but most important too we'd go on frustrating our retailers who are trying to run a business in this place."
The Parish Council requests that you do this by noon on February 5th. The Parish Council will then produce a feedback document which will be presented at the follow up meeting on Thursday 11th February, where there may be an opportunity for local residents, employers and employees to voice their opinions during the meeting.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I experienced a thoughtfully structured presentation, clear objectivity, supported by - gasp! - facts and & figures, along with Mike's professional and well paced delivery.
As a result, I am now even more undecided, but at least well-informed, and better equipped to form a view based on real information, rather than the emotional and self-serving nonsense we have been fed previously. Well done folks, in the face of overwhelming odds and entrenched opinions, you have done a marvellous job. You are a credit to the village, and we owe you our thanks.
Unfortunately I could not stay for all the meeting.
As Mike said this is a consultation but it's up to the village to decide. It sounds like local democracy at last.
As for the content......it was what I expected. To serve a purpose to trying to back up what they had come up with the proposals we had read previously. When it will get interesting will be futher looking into some of the facts and figures to see how correct they actually are.
I agree feedback is needed, but would question how much will gain from these feedback forms. If we get the whole village having opinion then great - interested to see what the feedback is. Judging by the round of applause for every member at the start, I doubt there will be many people there in the room to disagree with what they have proposed.
Is 3 weeks long enough to get the appropriate feedback in?
Well said,
I would have thought it more cost effective to create one car park on the site of the allotments, I don't know how many of the allotment holders on Beech road or CHL have more than one plot or indeed how many live outside of Alderley edge that could be re-allocated to the Heyes lane allotment holders.
Using the Heyes lane site is, in my opinion the most sensible plan put forward by the previous PC, not only is it an ideal position for the train station and one of the biggest employers in Alderley (Chess Telecom) it would be a great asset too, not only the medical centre but the festival hall as well, especially when the festival hall is having daytime functions like the music festival, when not only does the number of cars increase but there are coaches as well.
I am not a resident, but still a frequent visitor to Alderley, but in the 35 years of being in Buisness in Alderley and putting a few hundred thousand pounds into the system via Buisness rates I feel justified in giving my opinion.
I also would like to thank Frank Keegan for his tireless effort over many years for the good of Alderley and especially his work in trying to protect my Buisness from the threat of greedy property developers, work that he or the previous PC get no press.
I wish the current PC and the people of Alderley the very best and hope they can come to an amicable decision.
:)
I am the chairman of the allotment and garden society and I am full of hair fortunetly ! It's quite dark fortunetly as I turned 40 last year. So I'd suggest it wasn't me at your door but I apologise on behalf of the allotment society if this up set your frebile infant.
However, Chorley Hall Lane is not a solution. If you were to stand on Chorley Hall Lane bridge for any given time you will see how dangerous it is to walk over the bridge with pushchairs and worse if you have a pushchair and a toddler. I do not even know how you would get a wheelchair on the pavement so they use the road. The traffic is far too fast as the road is used as a cut-through and an accident will happen soon. Many cars come over the bridge in the middle of the road and at peak times it is much worse.
So to put a car park with 100 cars will surely make this situation so much worse. The football pitch is a lovely green space for the young footballers and dog walkers. What's to say also that once you start with a car park that you will in a few years expand the number of spaces?
Has anyone thought of:
1. Moving the allotments from Heyes Lane and increase the number of allotments off Chorley Hall Lane, that would give you more spaces on Heyes Lane. It would keep the space green and there is access already for the allotment holders.
2. The green space on Horseshoe lane lends itself to parking, a pedestrian crossing could be put on London Road, like they have near Waters in Wilmslow for people who use the car park. The people who work in the village could use this car park and free up the village spaces for shoppers and visitors.
there have been questions, over a period, about the Heyes Lane allotments.
I was recently shredding some old papers, including old P.C. stuff. I lightly read them as I shredded them. One sheet concerned the H. Lane allotments. I offer its contents to you.
As it is clearly one sheet from a longer set of pages, I can't give you authorship or provenance. In the sheet is a ref. to March 2013.
The pages claim:
Heyes Lane site has 16 allotments (does that mean that there is some kind of 'British Standard Allotment'?). That there are 6 un-halved and 20 halfed; thus 26 'tenants'.
The page suggesys 14 tenants are from A.E. and 12 from non-A.E.
It further reports that 3 tenants have 2 'plots' each.
I can't affirm the truth of these figures, as the former 'allotments landlord' found it difficult to obtain clear figures, but make of them what you may.
I you make a car park on CHL all you are doing is spending money on making a football club car park and IF they want one THEY can build it.
In fairness, this is a prime example of how / why we are in this whole situation, the planning permission should not have been approved for the Medical Centre and Festival Hall without a travel plan and adequate parking provision (appreciate before AE1 time). This such lack of consideration to potential Parking / Access requirements over many years and for all developments in the village has now led to this very unfortunate situation where we are considering the destruction of the only public open recreation area and playing field in the village (that will be needed in its full current size in the future and as the village grows).
Another important note from the meeting was that the Parish Council would listen and seriously consider all other alternatives for potentially assisting the car park issues (and specifically alternatives to those currently tabled). We were not allowed at the Parish Council Meeting 14/01/2015 to ask questions and Parish Councillors did not elaborate on other options considered so the only option is to put these on your comments / survey form and send back, please, please do this, do we really want to compromise Chorley Hall Lane Playing Field when there might be a better options? And really have we done enough to get to the root of the problems, to try and change these and then re-assess, might be that the problem remaining is completely different than what we think it is now and requires a completely different solution / action. A few ideas / starting points below, expect there are many others (many muted by others, Vin etc. on this site in comments)
1. Could we partner with AESG at their new sports facility site, car-parking provision at this site may serve commuters and village workers well?
2. Ryleys Lane (the road from London Road) with perhaps minor modifications / widening this road could potentially provide suitable all day parking on both sides without impacting traffic.
3. Strong enforcement, will soon prevent illegal parking and make people re-consider using Alderley Edge as a free easy parking solution for train etc. etc. Are considerate and legally parked cars on a public road a reality of living in England and potentially necessary for all thriving villages?
4. Have we done enough to prevent people from other villages (i.e. nearby Wilmslow) taking advantage of free parking in close proximity to the train station for parking and riding (Wilmslow not having such free parking within their own village). This would then allow a more accurate understanding of the extent of any parking problem that then remains.
5. A shuttle service is proposed to take workers from the train station at Alderley Edge to Alderley Park (and reverse in the evening), could parking for commuters and workers within Alderley Village be located at Alderley Park (i.e. filling the shuttle / mini bus in both directions at both morning and evening), worth a trial?
6. Planning Approvals, all planning approvals for businesses in the village should contain a condition that requires a traffic plan to be prepared, implemented and monitored, encouraging employees to utilise public transport, cycles, car share, local employment etc. etc.
7. Car Stickers, Could a village worker approved ‘’car sticker’’ system be used that allows those workers with a sticker to park on certain streets for the day?
8. Construction Traffic, The current development of four houses on Ryleys Lane has seen well in excess of 20 plus construction worker cars / vans using Ryleys Lane road and the Ryleys Lane free public carpark daily placing undue stress on already well used parking areas (these such vehicles arriving before 7 am and leaving after 5 pm). Restrictions could be imposed within planning permissions for such developers / contractors to park vehicles in alternative locations out of the village or less sensitive areas.
9. Have we consulted with the major village employer who has a ‘’re-occurring’’ approval for the construction of a multi-deck carpark (over existing carpark) at their site for staff and customers. One can only assume that parking is not causing their clients and staff an issue at present and they therefore do not need to construct it?
After addressing all the above (plus I am certain the village has other ideas) are we then not then best placed to ‘’re-group’’ and consider the problems that may then remain – it may not be as bad or very different to what we think (and certainly not worth destroying green spaces within the centre of the village). Please make sure you send your suggestions to the Parish Council with your survey / comment response.
A few genuine questions:
1) Do they genuinely think CHL can safely accommodate the extra traffic or does the proposal include major road improvements to what is fundamentally a single lane at certain points?
2) Is there acknowledgement (or evidence otherwise) that more people use the playing fields than use the allotments? And that most of the users are our children generally playing sport or exercising?
3) Is there any recognition that a larger car park on Heyes Lane would reduce traffic through the village (given that the main flow of traffic in and out of the village is from the A34?
4) Do they recognise that Heyes Lane is generally closer to the major employment places in the village and of course closer to the schools so may provide some, minor relief to school drop off?
5) Did anyone look at significantly extending the Ryleys Lane car park? It is closer to the hub of the village and the schools than CHL and whilst it also takes away recreational space, it is space of less use than the playing fields. It also IMO has less residential impact.
If anyone who went to the meeting or has a good understanding of the issue could answer the above it would be much appreciated by me and probably many others who are not right at the heart of the issue.
If you live in the village why not walk.
Taking the car is totally unecessary.
No excuses , it is a small village.
If you would like a little more of the information that was presented on Thursday, we have a Consultation Document which will help you. (Click this link to download the Consultation Document - http://bit.ly/1n4eq1K)
Alternatively, there are paper copies in the Library if you wish. Once you have had a chance to read the proposals, it would be useful for us to have your feedback and comments.
before continuing to press the case for one site or another, might it be useful to know :
what Cheshire East have said re. their permission (or not) to actually have a car park on C.H.Land or H.Lane or in the park ?
Also are there funds/borrowings available to actually build a car park (wherever and of whatever size) ?
I was at the meeting on Thursday evening so maybe I can help you.
I recall it was said that Cheshire East will not support the full conversion of Heyes Lane site. Neither will they support and expansion of the Ryleys Lane site into the park. (Think this is due to covenants). The will support the partial conversion of the allotments and also the proposal for CHL. It was reported that they would not offer Section 106 money for the CHL car park.
I am not sure about the finances apart from the fact that money would need to be borrowed. They did mention having an 'Anchor' tenant at the CHL site, in order to ensure a stream of income and help with getting the loan.
They were a great pains to explain that these are just ideas that they are putting up for feedback and that nothing was decided, it is all dependant on what the village want as a whole.
I hope that is helpful.
I understand that the parking options were presented well last week , but I remain convinced that the wrong question is being answered with out due consideration of the alternatives. If you ask the narrow question "where can i put some more tarmac or similar for 144 cars, then there are limited answers" , rather than start from a question more like "how can we ensure people and goods move around the village, and improve village life"; no doubt parking is part of that solution , but so are other things mentioned by Chris and others.
How about incentives not to drive , or to walk more than the fabled 5 mins to the centre. If you want to buy a steak pie or fish and chips, perhaps a walk would help with the calories rather than blocking clifton street or chorley hall lane.
As for parking ideas, then how about something really left field ; do a deal with NT re using the Wizard car park during week , and run an electric shuttle bus, or maybe a sponsored cable car direct to the Festival Hall .... The Edge Airline or maybe we can find a sponsor...
I would love to see the parking discussion put on hold and the PC actively call for innovative ideas to take the village forward.
And finally , re parking ... until there is enforcement by some means , penalties/fines when imposed seem to make no difference; lets reverse the thinking and give incentives for not parking.
best
Vin
re. alternative part-solutions.
A while back I was peripherally involved with the Methodist Chapel letting people know about its parking spaces. They are now mostly full all the time. Indeed I am told that the income from the Chapel parking is now greater than the income from collections.
There is a large car park by the R.C. Church (sorry I've forgotten its name; no rudeness intended) on Stamford Rd. Could that be used 'a la Chapel' for users of the Medical Centre and F. Hall? I did raise this possibility back in the day but nowt came of it. 'Say a little prayer' ?
But I think it hugely disrespectful to ALL those on this site who have volunteered an opinion . It is a forum after all, however there is a happy hunting ground for Trolls and a sad minority of fellow travellers on the most red arrowed and least popular comments on the Daily Mail site. (I prefer Comment is Free). So I will heed the popular advice these days to "not feed the trolls". Happy Hunting and Adios........