A newly formed group, who came together a few months ago to challenge the current Alderley Edge Parish Council members, have achieved a comprehensive victory.
AlderleyEdgeFIRST have defeated the nine Conservative candidates to take every seat on Alderley Edge Parish Council.
The results of Thursday's election were announced at Macclesfield Leisure Centre this evening.
The winning candidates, with the number of votes they received in brackets, are:
• Craig Browne, Alderley Edge First - 1331 votes
• Mike Dudley-Jones, Alderley Edge First - 1189 votes
• Myles Garbett, Alderley Edge First - 1061
• Rachael Grantham, Alderley Edge First - 1406 votes
• Geoff Hall, Alderley Edge First - 1258 votes
• Ilana Higham, Alderley Edge First - 1178 votes
• Christine Munro, Alderley Edge First - 1314 votes
• Ruth Norbury, Alderley Edge First - 1166 votes
• Michael Taylorson, Alderley Edge First - 1146 votes
The number of votes received by the Conservative candidates were:
• Melanie Connor, Conservative Party - 975 votes
• Martin Hallam, Conservative Party - 879 votes
• Duncan Herald, Conservative Party - 900 votes
• Eleanor Herald, Conservative Party - 807 votes
• Xanthe Holt, Conservative Party - 790 votes
• Sue Joseph, Conservative Party - 822 votes
• Frank Keegan, Conservative Party - 945 votes
• Nigel Schofield, Conservative Party - 861 votes
• Mike Williamson, Conservative Party - 896 votes
The turnout was 67.97% and 39 votes were rejected.
Speaking after the results wee announced, Rachael Grantham said "I would just like to thank everybody who has voted for us on behalf of AlderleyEdgeFIRST. I would also like to thank everyone who has supported us from within the village and also outside of the village.
"I'd like to thank the previous parish councillors for their dedication to Alderley Edge, we can only hope to continue this and improve on it.
"Personally i am very honoured to be part of such a hardworking and dedicated team and hope to bring a voice for the younger generation of Alderley Edge to the Parish Council."
Ruth Norbury said "It's the beginning of a very exciting period for us and Alderley Edge.
"I know that a lot of good work has been done by previous parish councillors and we hope to carry that on. There are a lot of blank spaces that need to be filled in and I hope we can do that very quickly and pick the baton up and move forward in a very positive direction for the village and its future.
"I'd like to thank everyone in Alderley Edge who supported us."
Christine Munro commented "I am very excited, delighted and honoured to be chosen by the people of Alderley Edge and I'll do my very best to be worthy of the job."
Craig Browne said "I'd like to pay tribute to the retiring councillors and also congratulate my fellow independents.
"We inherit some very important projects and issues, not least the completion of the Festival Hall and Medical Centre and the resolution to parking issues in Aldelrey Edge."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Brilliant campaign, thoroughly deserved.
Congratulations to AlderleyEdgeFIRST for this incredible achievement.
The Village has spoken, and they have spoken loud and clear.
Decency wins!
Honk Honk!
Congratulations to all elected and commiserations to the outgoing Councillors.
Politics can be a rough business - get used to it if you are out and prepare for it if you are just in.....
Looking forward to working with you Craig at CEC.
Not many villages could have pulled this result off but ours has and we're proud to see it.
Perhaps not quite so bizarre when you consider that Craig was standing head-to-head for the Borough and one in eighteen for the Parish.
But anyway, you "called It" correctly yesterday, so congratulations for that.
Perhaps the derogatory and vitriolic comments being put on facebook will cease now!!!
(not nice or very proffesional at all)
I was really sad not to see your name amongst the candidates. You have to admit that these guys have done brilliantly. They have already got rid of the foul smell in Alderley Edge. I personally look forward to seeing what else they will achieve. I am sure you will support them in any way you can.
When totalling the votes cast and dividing it by total candidates, the av. votes per candidate for the Parish is 1051 to 1229 for Borough, or c. 85%. I'm assuming not all voters used all 9 votes? If you factor up the 1331 to include that missing c. 15% you get 1555.
I did this as basic maths on my phone. I've double checked the numbers but feel free to amend any mistakes in practice or theory...
Now the work begins
Best wishes .
To be honest, twelve months ago (27 May 2014, when I wrote the following), I was just referring to and hoping for a change at Borough Council level, not at the Parish Council level.
“In my observation, the results of election on 22nd May [2014] show that politicians can't afford to alienate their voters by ignoring their genuine concerns for too long. I feel that the tide is turning against taken for granted 'power' and perhaps new local leadership with fresh ideas (other than a car park on Heyes Lane) , might "make things happen". To be clear, I have no vested interests to declare”.
On reflection, at that time, I found Duncan Herald doing great work (for the village) and keeping us updated via alderleyedge.com.
Now ladies and gentlemen (newly elected councillors), hard work of delivering on your promises starts as soon as the last celebratory drink is finished. There is no doubt in your ability to deliver; we (the electorates) have supported you so far and you can count on our support in the future. At the same time, please bear in mind that your actions and attitudes will be robustly scrutinised by your opponents as well as your supporters.
A new dawn has broken in Alderley Edge!!!!
Best of luck to all our councillors!!!
I believe this was noted as “impossible to happen” and “if by some miracle”. After, amongst other things, being threatened with legal action this final Coup de grâce has made my day.
With all this spare time maybe one or two ex-councillors can take up an allotment?
What I want to see now is more pressure put on Cheshire East to spend money on road repairs before a cyclist gets killed after hitting a pot hole or badly maintained road, road side grids need checking, cleaning and repairing, center lines need re-painting, cats eyes need replacing.
Footpaths in the Parish need vegetation cutting back.
Money must not be wasted on "events" in the village, I am not saying don't put money into "events" in the village, but just not as much as before, sort the village problems out first before pleasure.
The Turnout: 67.95% was not bad, but could have been better.
again well done Independents:
Honk Honk!
The PC used to employ a lengthsman to keep the place looking tidy, verges etc, but I guess he was disposed of ages ago - I wonder what happened to his Piagio Machine ?
Craig is going to find it very hard to learn his way about within the Council and as an independent will not have very much in the way of party machinery to point him in the right direction. The Borough will organise training events for the new councillors but frequently these are tedious dreary pointless affairs. 10% of the info is essential and 90% is dross - but you have to attend the session to get the 10%.
Then there is the question of which committees Craig gets to sit on and what the proportionate representation on the committees is. If the Tories have an overwhelming majority on a committee, the party line will always carry - and, having never been a member of a small group in opposition, I have no idea how the committees are shared out. So just how Craig will get the committee positions he wants is a mystery to me ( as, no doubt, it is to Craig ). The committees get you in touch with the relevant officers for that committee on a regular basis. So, if Craig is interested in Social Justice - then maybe the committees that deal with social services will be for him, but then that makes lobbying for Highways somewhat harder, and in any event - getting a committee you want will be a lottery.
The main thing that the new boys can do is to start to establish cordial relations with the CEC Officers. The approach taken by the old Councillors and the history with the Borough Tory leadership meant that they actually got less out of CEC than they might otherwise had done. I recall one highways officer, having yet again been bullied and insulted by one Councillor muttering to me that that was the last time he ever did him a favour.
So - let's not expect too much too soon. For me, the main task is to deal with the medical centre and the parking in the allotments. As is usually the case, not going ahead with something is marginally easier than going ahead. :-))
Good luck to all.
You will be hearing a lot more from us in the near future, but for the moment please accept our sincere thanks.
Whether or not you voted for us, you can be sure that we will give our best efforts to serving you - and that we will treat everyone with equal respect, and to the best of our abilities.
the 'lengthsman' is employed by the PC and works out of the Festival Hall.
You have obviously had some sort of a bruising experience in your short time in politics. Mr Keegan seems to have got the better of you. The thing is that AE1 have got the better of him . So maybe it would be more helpful if you productively put your experience to a more positive outcome and engage with them.
I do think there is much more credibility in standing and fighting than running away.
Short time in politics ? After a few years of preliminary work I was an elected Councillor for 11 years.
Frank never got the better of me - he had to withdraw the PC's resistance to the Bypass which was my major achievement. He has fought tooth and nail against the resident's parking schemes which I helped promote and which remain in place to this day.
The issue that defeated me was local government reorganisation - My Alderley Division was abolished and I represented Macc Forest for 4 years and then that was essentially abolished and I could not be bothered to fight for any old seat just to be a Councillor. If I want to represent anywhere - its Alderley Edge.
All my last posting was intended to achieve - was to point out that we should not expect instant miracles from the new boys.
As for running away - I already joked with Craig that new time round - he might find himself up against me as the Conservative Candidate :-)))
I have read all the comments on a daily basis over the last few months. I have not commented because, by quirk of boundary lines and despite having lived in Alderley Edge since 1988, my home falls into the Wilmslow West and Chorley/Chorley PC area by a few feet. I had no wish to be accused of being an "outsider" or asked why I was interested in Alderley Edge so chose to stay quiet! But Alderley Edge is where I live, I care about this village and I hope better times are ahead for the whole village.
Being willing to stick your head above the parapet and get involved in local politics takes more confidence than I have, but I admire those who have done so and wish the new AEPC good luck with the very difficult job they have taken on. Alderley Edge is a wonderful village and is not just about footballers and soap stars (as many people seem to assume when they realise I live here) and recent events have proved that we have a thriving community and will now be represented locally by people who are not in it for glory or personal gain from what I can see.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Lisa Reeves for her comprehensive and impartial reporting, keeping us up to date and even getting results right even when Cheshire East's own website got them wrong (as it happens in Wilmslow West and Chorley).
On Cheshire East Council, I will be a member of the Independent Group (which includes AlderleyEdgeFIRST, Handforth Ratepayers, Residents of Wilmslow, Bollington First, Middlewich First & Nantwich First). There are eleven Independent Councillors in total.
Committee seats are allocated to each Group on the basis of the number of Councillors they have; for example, there are 82 Councillors in total, so the Independent Group receives 11/82 (13%) of the seats on each committee. My particular interests are: Planning, Public Rights of Way, Communities and Children & Families.
I will be going to Sandbach twice this week: tomorrow, to sign my Declaration of Acceptance of Office; and on Thursday to attend my induction training. The first full Council meeting is on 27th May.
We would like to thank every one of the existing Parish Council for their hard work, freely given over so many years. The fact that we and others believe that now is the time for change should take nothing away from the work they have put in.
We are ready now to complete any outstanding projects that the Village holds dear including the Medical Centre and the ‘revival’ of the Festival Hall. And we will begin our comprehensive examination of the ‘parking’ issues that face the Village with a Plan that will serve us well into the future.
None of what lies ahead for us can be achieved without the wonderful support we have had so far and we hope will remain in position for us in the future. We promise to reflect our gratitude for this with a new style of Parish Council where we share our thoughts with you - and attempt to marry them to your hopes.
Our next ‘journey’ can now begin. Before we can do that we need to understand exactly where we are starting from. We will examine that during the Parish Council Meeting on Monday 18th May, to be held at the Methodist Church beginning at 7.30pm.
We hope that you will come to meet us on that evening so that we can all take the first steps we need to take to make our Village better.
I think I owe you an apology as I had not fully understood or researched your political career. I don't think I understood just how hard you have worked as a Conservative councillor. I just looked at your history with Frank Keegan and made an assumption that you would back what AE1 are doing and support them as the majority of AE residents have.
One thing I know about you is that you should be respected for your intelligence and insight. I recall seeing a post from you on this site saying "watch this space". I thought you would be the one to join with AE1 and challenge Mr Keegan. As I have said, I was disappointed that you didn't.
If I had been you I would have gone to the Conservative selection committee and put myself forward as the ward councillor instead of Mr Keegan in the hope that this would stop them losing control of AE.
Had you done that, it is quite possible that we would be looking at a very different political landscape right now. So maybe what I am sensing from your posts is either a regret that you did not do this or a regret that the Conservative selection committee did not listen to you.
As you say, you may very well be challenging Craig at the next election. So it may be wise of the AE1 people to take your helpful advice with a pinch or two of salt.
One of the major issue with our village is that it is being abused by 'day parking' around our streets.
What are the new team of Parish Councillors going to do about it?
This problem amplifiers in the afternoon as day parking is happening around the Primary School and The Ryleys School, this has a serious impact at the end of school day during pickup.
There is also school traffic issue at the Girls School too but as I'm aware it is not caused by day parking.
Councillors, you have won your seats, please let us know your plan to resolve this.
BTW. It's no good just paint all the roads in the village as residents need parking for visitors.
As a Parish Council, we will be writing to James Howard from Cheshire East Parking (he was instrumental in helping to set up the existing Residents' Parking Schemes in Clifton St, Lydiat Lane & Carlisle St) and asking for a review of parking arrangements in Alderley Edge.
We also have the urgent issue of the Festival Hall & Medical Centre to address. As things stand, no formal contractual agreement is in place with the developer, who has been working on the basis of a Letter of Intent over recent months.
As the Cheshire East Councillor, I already have a meeting scheduled with Michael Jones (Leader of the Council) to discuss how we can begin to move things forward for the benefit of Alderley Edge. I will give an update on that, as soon as possible.
Schemes like the Clifton St, Lydiat Lane and Carlisle St. just push the problem to other streets.
How long are we going to play push the problem to another street.
The main caused of issue here is day parking. People park here all day because the work here or nearby the village. The council and local businesses must come up with solution. Not just turn every street into 'Residient' only.
Did you see the (promotional) article posted on 30 April by AlderleyEdgeFIRST? The headline was "Parking will be our No. 1 priority - Our prime responsibility". I think the newly elected Parish Council are in no doubt that parking has to go to top of the 'To Do' list. I quite agree with you, by the way, that painting every residential street with double yellow lines does little to nothing to solve the problem. I'm pretty sure the PC are aware of that too.