More votes in favour of the Pavilion Cafe needed

Great idea

A good practical idea to encourage locals of all ages to relax in the park

Let's hope that a cup of your "exceptionally good coffee" does not equal the price of that sold by the COSTA FORTUNE chain. Keep the prices low and the spirits high. Good luck with your cafe in the park idea.

This is an excellent idea. The park is a greatly under used community resource. Development of the pavilion would no doubt help change that. The article mentions that other improvements would flow from this development. As a father of two young children I have to say that the playground has seen better days and I would love to see that area of the park improved. I would also add that the Live 8 event back in 2005 was a really great family day out and I would love to see more community events like that in the future. Maybe a 'party in the park' event could be held to raise funds for improvements to the park?

What a good idea Martin - a party in the park to raise funds, why not!

Just today I was thinking that a cream tea with local brass event would be a good fun; easy to organise, inexpensive to provide (I am very good at baking scones!) and so yummy for all concerned (I must have been hungry again..).

We should do it anyway but specifically in relation to the cafe; I am hoping that with monies already allocated + help from the Parish, Institute and perhaps local businesses, we will have suffient funds to at least open the doors

We will be having another meeting with Cheshire East soon and will let you know about our progress and forthcoming parties after that!

A great idea. How about having a word with some local traders (non coffee purveyors) to give reward vouchers for a coffee in the park just to get things started--Mums picking up from school would also be a good target audience. Good luck with the enterprise.

This is a shoddy idea. There's no need for a cafe in the middle of the park; it's a beautiful and relaxing park that although seldom packed with visitors is fairly well used as it is. The village is crammed with cafes and restaurants, the park should be an ESCAPE from that, where you don't feel obliged to be buying something, but can just enjoy the pleasantries of our village.

Needless to say, sticking a cafe in the middle would cause a greatly increased amount of litter, let alone the noise that would be generated. And as for the 'badly needed' improvements, well come off it, Alderley park is very well kept - it's got a bowling green, tennis courts, kiddies park, swings and slides and lots of space for one's own leisure activities. This is an entirely unnecessary move that would turn even a sweet trip to the park into a commercial experience.

On behalf of every steady-minded villager, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Benjamin, I regret that you feel so strongly about our idea of a small cafe in the park that you need to use terms such as 'shoddy'.

As a group on the Parish Plan, we didn't presume that everyone would approve of the cafe (fortunately, thus far, less than a handful of people have expressed their disapproval) and continue to make an effort to publicise our idea, giving people the opportunity to respond and give their opinion. We do live in a democracy after all!

It may be, having read your comment and those made in the letters column of the Express last week, that we should have made our intentions and plans a little clearer (we do give people the opportunity to contact the four of us direct). We have merely responded to comments made within the Parish Plan Questionnaire of last year. In this, a considerable number of local people commented on the lack of community spirit within the village. We felt that the park could be used to bring people together; without the necessity of joining a group, society or church...

I fear you may have misinterpreted the calibre and type of cafe we are proposing; we will not be spoiling your 'sweet trip' to the park or creating a 'commercial experience'. Litter will be strictly controlled and it would primarily be a family, mother and baby/child friendly experience. Obviously it would be self sustaining and hopefully, any additional monies generated ploughed back into the park.

Don't worry Susan, to me Benjamin sounds like one of those "grumpy old men" you see on TV. Although I have never met him I am looking forward to having a cup of your excellent coffee with him in your cafe in due course! Take his comments with a pinch of salt. He'll come round eventually and no doubt will be shopping at the new Tesco and eating at the new Pizza Express.

It's time for Benjy to shake off his 'stick in the mud attitude' and lighten up a little. I suspect that at heart he's not so grumpy as he sounds.

I just want to add that I think a low key cafe is a FABULOUS idea, as is the provision of loos - although the latter is probably needed more than the former! A party in the park as suggested earlier is also a fantastic idea! Good luck!!

I was in Alderley park this morning with my two little girls thinking about the cafe in the park. It was a beautiful sunny day and along with the friends we had arranged to meet I thought we were the only ones there. Then I noticed the pavilion was occupied by a group of four teenage girls who at first glance looked very presentable but as my 2 year old wandered nearby I noticed they were in fact setting light to objects tied to the railings and passing round cigarettes which I am confident were joints. Whilst I recognise that introducing a cafe to our park means we need to consider other issues, such as litter and potential noise, surely having a cafe there would put an end to the goings on my young family witnessed today?