Alderley Edge Parish Councillors were outraged to learn that 23% of their budget to (*identify ways to) transform the centre of Alderley Edge has already been spent.
They were particularly annoyed to learn that Cheshire East Council (CEC) is charging them £15,000 for work their officers have put into the project which has yet to achieve anything.
The Parish Council and CEC have held several meetings with Ben Hamilton-Baillie, who worked on the shared space scheme in Poynton, to discuss the redevelopment of the centre of the village.
Cheshire East Council had allocated £50,000 to this project and apparently an additional £59,000 is available from 106 monies.
At the Parish Council meeting on Monday, 12th December, Cllr Mike Williamson confirmed that CEC had engaged Ben Hamilton-Baillie to carry out a research project and draw up ideas of how the parish might address issues around London Road.
Cllr Williamson told fellow councillors "He has come up with some ideas and we will have a proper public consultation. To date they have spent £25,000 on doing this work. £10,000 has gone to Ben Hamilton-Baillie and £15,000 has been spent by CEC because they are billing us for all the work CEC officers are doing on this project."
Outraged councillors responded by saying this was "ridiculous" and "taking the mickey".
Cllr Sue Joseph commented that "A quarter of the budget has gone down the swanny".
Cllr Mike Williamson agreed, stating "They are using the money to pay their staff. We've asked for proper figures from them."
Apparently CEC had initially estimated that getting to the stage of a public consultation with Ben Hamilton-Baillie would cost about £5,000.
Cllr Matthew Lloyd said "The money spent on Ben will pay dividend, it is money well spent, it's the money spent by CEC which isn't."
Cllr Joseph added "By the time we get to public consultation the money will have all gone."
It was confirmed at the meeting that Ben Hamilton-Baillie's proposals will require some funding and the Parish Council do not know where the money to fund that will come from.
Cllr Frank Keegan remarked "We are in the ridiculous situation that we are going to have to ask them for a quote for how much they are going to charge us for a meeting."
The Parish Council have been in dialogue with CEC since before the bypass opened, to try and ensure the necessary traffic management is put in place to reflect the changes in traffic flows. They are also looking to address areas which have been neglected for many years whilst the focus was on getting the bypass built.
Back in October Cllr Matthew Lloyd told me "The Parish Council's discussions with CEC were initially focused on the possible redesign of a number of junctions but a more holistic view is now being taken to address a wider range of needs for redevelopment of the centre of Alderley.
"A very wide range of possibilities are being looked at, with no specific proposals to be made before public consultation. The initial thoughts are that any such redevelopment would be focused on the main road through the village, perhaps from the Ryleys Lane junction to the north through to the Macclesfield Road junction to the south."
One of the proposals being considered is a shared space scheme, however as Cllr Lloyd explained, it would not be like the Poynton one because Alderley faces different issues and any scheme in Alderley would need to accommodate on street parking on London Road.
The Parish Council were hoping to run an initial public consultation in November but it will now have to wait until 2012.
* This article has been updated to make it clear that the budget was for identifying ways to transform the village and not to cover any future works as well.
