Plans to relocate the George Street surgery to the Festival Hall are in a state of limbo.
Alderley Edge Parish Council announced at this week's meeting that they can see no clear way forward for their plans to build a new medical centre at the front of the Festival Hall.
In October Mike Williamson, Chairman of Alderley Edge Parish Council, reported an outline agreement had been reached with the Primary Care Trust (PCT) but by January the situation had changed when Councillor Paul Tomlinson advised that the financial plan discussed in October no longer worked.
He told the other councillors that they would be invited to attend a private meeting where the new plan for the Festival Hall, which would be funded in a different way, would be presented.
Councillor Williamson said, on Monday 7th March, that the meeting did not happen because "there are no clear plans on how to move the project forward. The problem is, at the moment there isn't actually a project.
"We are in a state of limbo, there is no clear way for us to move the project forward."
He added "We don't know how we are going to finance it and what it is going to look like."
Frank Keegan said "We need to get back to the financing, set out how we are going to achieve that."
"The finance initially planned for prudential borrowing but that has died a death."
Councillor Tomlinson, who has been spearheading the project, has been trying to find someone who could provide the capital as an alternative means of financing.
Alderley Edge Parish Council took over management of the Festival Hall in 2009 after a review, carried out by consultants on behalf of Macclesfield Borough Council in 2005, concluded that the hall was underused, losing money and out of touch with the modern community.
Plans for the redeveloped hall include creating a new medical centre at the front of the building which will occupy the first two floors, with the third floor being rented commercially, redeveloping the middle of the hall to create a multifunctional space aimed at local, corporate and social users, and refurbishing the rear of the building to house Parish Council facilities.
For the past couple of years a significant portion of the precept, which is the part of our council tax collected for the Parish Council, has been allocated to the festival hall. In 2010 the Parish Council tax was increased by 71% from £70,000 to £120,000, 74% of which (£89,195) was allocated to the Festival Hall. However, because the Parish Council didn't redevelop the hall as they had intended a lot of this money wasn't spent and has been carried forward.
The Parish Council's proposed budget for 2011/12 shows that a large part of the predicted £205,156 expenditure is again allocated to the Festival Hall. Operational costs for the hall are budgeted at £70,000, as they were last year, included in which is £15,000 should they decide to appoint a marketing manager for the hall on a part time basis.
In addition there are legal costs of £5000 and a contingency of £40,000 incase the Festival Hall roof needs repairing, bringing the total budget for the Festival Hall to £130,615, which represents 63.6% of the Parish Council's budgeted expenditure for 2011/12.
According to the proposed budget, income from the Festival Hall will be £33,000 for the coming financial year, £15,000 of which will come from Cheshire East, so ultimately the tax payer, to help cover the costs of running the hall. In addition £4,500 will be paid in rent to the Parish Council for the two phone masts, leaving just £13,500 income from Festival Hall bookings.
Discussing their options moving forward, Councillor Keegan felt that the old procurement process from March 2009 was probably dead but it was decided that they would take up this issue to determine how long the tender process can survive.
Click here for previous articles about plans for a new medical centre at the Festival Hall.
