As part of the development of a Neighbourhood Plan for Alderley Edge, residents were recently asked to complete a questionnaire about the village; what they valued most and any changes they wanted over the coming years.
The Neighbourhood Plan, which is now being written by a number of residents, will guide future planning decisions in and around the village.
Alderley Edge Parish Council delivered 2500 copies of the Neighbourhood Plan questionnaire and received in the region of 400 completed copies.
The team already reported some weeks ago about preferred sites for additional housing, if called for in Cheshire East's Local Plan. These included Harden Park, Hole Farm near Brook Lane bridge, land adjacent to A34 (Ryleys Farm), land opposite Horseshoe Farm and land to the north of Beech Road.
Those residents who responded to the survey wanted to see more small, affordable housing, including bungalows, rather than continued development of larger luxury detached houses. Additionally, they considered that continued infill within the village boundaries was not acceptable, favouring smaller developments at selected sites around the boundary.
The survey also revealed that residents value the green spaces in and around the village and want to keep a degree of separation from neighbouring Wilmslow. They want to be part of a village community, with a distinctive identity.
The responses also showed that residents put retaining a village feel top of their list, with reducing the impact of traffic not far behind. Amongst the things most prized by them were independent, family-owned shops and residents wanted to see them given preference over the growth of further restaurants and bars.
When asked about transport, respondents put concerns about poor road maintenance top of their list, closely followed by the availability of car parking and the need for more control of speeding vehicles. Whilst the favoured location for additional off-street car parking was the proposed extension of the existing Ryleys Lane car park.
The questionnaire also invited residents to comment on the centre of the village and more than three quarters of them wanted to see improvements to London Road, again focusing on increased car parking facilities around the village centre and greater encouragement for retailers in the village.
Sarah Greenwood from the Neighbourhood Plan Group said "The survey, undertaken in March, was an important early step for us as the results underpin the development of the Neighbourhood Plan; steering its direction. We are going to continue to consult widely on what residents and business people in the village want and at the end of the process they will have a chance to vote on the Plan in a local referendum."
She added "We are now moving on to the next stage in the process, which will entail creating a vision statement for our village in 2030. The Neighbourhood Plan Group is open to any resident of Alderley Edge with an interest in the village's future development. We would like to encourage those interested in contributing to register their interest at [email protected]."
Neighbourhood Plans allow communities to say what they want their priorities to be over the next 15 years and once completed they have the power of the law. Planning Officers will refer to Neighbourhood Plans when considering planning applications for new developments in and around the village, which means they can have a real and positive impact on the village's future.
The survey results can be seen in full at the Festival Hall and Alderley Edge Library.
Comments
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However, what is disturbing about the article is the statement that the results of the Survey “underpin the development of the Neighbourhood Plan” especially considering the flawed nature of that Survey, specifically:
1. The Neighbourhood Plan is supposed to be for a 13 year period, and yet the only options given to residents for additional housing were development plans already submitted – thus ruling out any future proposals in the 13 year period.
2. Even with this limited number of proposals, the number one choice of the residents turned out to be invalid as it was already approved.
3. The land ‘north of Beech Road’ was incorrectly identified in the maps leaving certain Councillors claiming the land which many people specifically voted against being developed was actually that north of the Circuit (which is in Wilmslow!) – justifying his comment that this was “technically north east of Beech Road”.
The wording of the article is also disturbing in that it claims the survey suggests the residents want to keep “a degree of separation” from neighbouring Wilmslow. I suggest the use of the word “degree” is highly misleading since it hides the fact that the preferred sites set by specific members of the PC before any other surveys or consultation have been done are all on the north side of Alderley and do not take into account the pressure on that northern part of the green belt coming from developments such as Royal London. It is sad when the arguments descend into the semantics of claiming the Plan is defending 'Green Belt' between Alderley and Wilmslow ("How wide is a piece of Belt?") rather than THE Green Belt – i.e. that which currently exists.
Finally, to suggest the preferred sites will be developed “if called for in Cheshire East’s Local Plan” is even more disingenuous. Surely Cheshire East have already made an allocation – otherwise why was the Survey issued? However, more to the point, certain members of the PC want to see development in the short term to enable Infrastructure funds to be released sooner rather than later. If there's no development in the short term, they don’t get their money.
Roger Birch