Alderley Edge Farmer's Market is set to go ahead in the village centre this weekend without the approval of Cheshire East Council.
Having spent over 18 months trying to obtain permission to relocate the market to the pavement off London Road, Christine Munro, who has organised this market for the past 14 years, has decided to go ahead despite the fact permission for the move has not been granted.
A spokesperson from Cheshire East Council said last week "Discussions of the proposal of Christine Munro to hold a farmers' market on London Road concluded sometime ago.
"As we confirmed last week, Cheshire East Council has not given approval for a market to be held there and is not currently considering the matter.
"As a Council we would not consider making any decision without the full support of the parish council, local retailers and local businesses across the village centre – even though the final decision does rest with Cheshire East.
"The council has supported new outdoor markets locally in Macclesfield, Wilmslow and Knutsford and will continue to work with market organisers where there is a demand and the location is suitable.
"The Borough Council has, over many years, supported Christine with her local initiatives and wishes her well with her other activities in the village."
Speaking at the Parish Council meeting on Monday, 6th October, Christine Munro told councillors "I am still having problems with Cheshire East and would like to briefly bring you up to date.
"I wanted to make sure that everyone locally was in favour of the market so I did a survey of local businesses and shops to enquire whether they would give me their support if I relocated the market into the village. All 43 surveyed have signed to say they would like this to happen, in addition to this 20 traders plan to open on the market day, even though some of them don't normally open on a Sunday.
"I attended the ATAG meeting last Wednesday and once again received the wholehearted support of the traders association. In spite of all this support Cheshire East issued a statement via an unnamed spokesperson saying that they do not support the market.
"Frustrated by this I contacted George Osborne who immediately got in touch with Michael Jones, the Leader of Cheshire East. Cllr Jones phoned me personally and assured me Cheshire East have no problems with me holding a market in the village, in fact he urged me to go ahead. however, Cheshire East's public stance, apparently confirmed in a further statement last week is to oppose the market.
"Taking into account the support of local traders, local people and local producers who would like to attend I have decided to go ahead with the market on Sunday 13th October.
"The market will be positioned on private land as I have stated previously. To ensure we don't inconvenience any local traders we will open at 10am and close at 4pm which will fit in with their trading hours. I have 29 local producers booked in to attend in addition to the 20 local shops that will be open on the day.
"In spite of all this support I am still concerned about the official stance of Cheshire East and I wonder whether Cllr Frank Keegan, as the PC representative on CEC could intervene to find out why CEC is operation in the strange way and what we can do to put things right.
"It seems to me that when our local MP, as well as the Leader from Cheshire East together with the Parish Council and shopkeepers in the village, local producers and local residents all support the market one unidentified spokesperson from Cheshire East can still issue statements opposing it."
Cllr Matthew Lloyd, Chairman of AEPC said "I wished you well for it Christine given that you told the meeting at the time that you had the support of Cheshire East, that they had agreed it. It subsequently became clear that they hadn't agreed it and also they have made it quite clear it is an issue for Cheshire East, not an issue for the Parish Council to give you permission to run the market. I understand what you say about it being run on private land and I believe there are further considerations beyond that though which are to do with highways.
"My understanding is that it has not been given permission by Cheshire East to go ahead. I am not in position to give you every reason and every single process they need to go through to give you permission but they haven't given you permission and so that is the situation."
Christine said "They have not given me permission because they believe that the Parish Council are against it."
Matthew Lloyd responded "That is not correct. That is not reason they have not given you permission. That is one of the things they mentioned."
Christine replied "That is what it says in the statement councillor, did you read it? It says that the trades people and the local people, together with the Parish Council do not support the market. I have proof that the trades people are desperate for the market to be in the village and local people too so that just leaves one set of people who are against it and that's the Parish Council."
To which Matthew Lloyd said "That's completely out of order to suggest such a thing Christine, how you can try to present we are the only people when it is clearly a Cheshire East decision, not a Parish Council decision. It is not for me to work out every process you need to go through before they can allow a market to be held. We have not made any public statements."
Cllr Mike Williamson added "May I ask you to go back to Cheshire East and ask them for an explanation as to why they tell you the Parish Council has opposed it as I can tell you there has been no discussion, no email and no letter which would indicate that we are directly opposed to you holding the market.
"We have left it simply to Cheshire East to go through their processes. They are entirely responsible as the local authority to determine highways issues or any other issues in regards to roads or the businesses within the village. So you need to go back to Cheshire East and challenge them to show why they argue the Parish Council objected and if you have that evidence from them bring it back to us."
"I can assure you there has been no communication from us at all, by letter, email or by vote to oppose the market."
Having covered this story for months I am still unclear as to exactly why the market has not been granted permission to relocate to the village and who has a problem with it. I have asked Cheshire East Council why they have not granted permission for the farmer's market to be held London Road and who has not provided their full support? I am awaiting a response.
Despite all of this the Alderley Edge Farmer's Market is scheduled to go ahead on Sunday 13th October from 10am until 4pm. The plan is for stalls to be located outside The Co-op coming up to the main road and along to Chafes and a number of local shops will be opening for the occasion.
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I hope Sunday's Market is a great success.