What impression of our lovely village do visitors really receive? The welcoming sign, common to many Cheshire villages and often supported by tasteful hanging baskets, that would inform them that they are entering Alderley Edge?
Residential streets whose smooth surfaces will compete with the perfect, soon-to-be-spread tarmac of the new by-pass? A community which takes pride in tidying up after itself, and its dogs? Roadsides which are free of distracting and unauthorised hoardings, posters and clutter?
These photos in the gallery below, taken on a golden November day, belie the image of the prosperous, caring community of our imagination.
Postscript:
I'm sorry that your banner was included in one of the photos, but I do feel strongly that there is far too much advertising "clutter" attached to lampposts, fences and boards. I am all in favour of your website, and I think you have done a good job in publicising it to date, through door-to-door mailings, word of mouth, etc.
Does the board on the A34 have planning permission, and does someone receive an income for letting this space?
I think the vendetta against the well-planned, professional Dobbies site is attacking a trivial issue compared with this creeping Americanisation of our roadsides by signs and billboards, from A4 sheets advertising sales (and why are they not taken down after the event?), through the police notices that litter the A34 and other highways, to the collection of the adverts in question here.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Andy Morrison at Horseshoe Farm had kindly offered to display this for us on his land. We did not pay Andy, it was a goodwill gesture on his behalf because he is passionate about the community and regularly supports local businesses.
We have not fly postered anywhere because we completely disagree with it. All our flyers have been placed in local businesses with the permission of the owners. I did ask for permission to place an alderleyedge.com flyer on the Parish Council notice booth outside Somerfield but they didn't respond so we have never placed any advertising there, we have also not placed banners on the railings by the station because we feel it is only right to obtain permission.
Our marketing budget is minimal given that alderleyedge.com has been completely self-financed to date so we are very grateful to the local businesses that have supported us in spreading the word about the community website and we feel we have made both our flyers and the banner as professional as we are capable of.
The increase in adverts being placed around the village is no doubt partly due to the recession which is hitting a lot of people hard. Maybe a solution would be for the council to create a notice board specifically for Alderley Edge based businesses and associations to advertise.
I too am grateful to Lisa Reeves for starting up this great website, but to compare the overuse of flyposting to the proposed Dobbies 'garden World' is ludicrous. The flyposters are removable, Dobbies could be the beginning of unstoppable ribbon development on the new green belt corridor. Their proposal contravenes both Local and National Government planning policies, will generate additional traffic and noise pollution to name a few reasons for objecting to this oversized development.
There is no vendetta against Dobbies/Tesco. There is nothing to stop them from using the available Mathew's site which carries planning permission, but with the Tesco store in the village threatening the closure of some of the smaller, local shops (theirs was not even built to plan), I'm wondering if Tesco hasn't a vendetta against Alderley Edge.
Some of the roads are broken up but this is likely because of penny-pinching by the local council.
This website is fantastic and is an alternative way of fostering 'community' in the digital age.
I fully agree with Kriss re Dobbies/Tesco. If people are unhappy about the roads, fly posting (+ street furniture), general scruffiness in the village and its environs now, just imagine how much this situation will be exacerbated by the Dobbies development; the domino effect will be utterly calculable. The identity that Alderley Edge purports to cherish; its aspiration to retain its Victorian heritage, ‘village feel/sense of community'’, affluent status and treasured greenbelt will all be lost if such a development goes ahead.
The point is that problems related to transient, aesthetic matters can be easily remedied; get your parish/CE councillors working for you – that is their role.
The community should gets its priorities in order and pull together to halt this application; signs, dog bags and even holes in the road ARE ‘trivial’. Proposed developments such as Dobbies are not.
Our banner coming down was purely coincidental. We also liked seeing it as we drove in to the village but it had been there for some time and we are very grateful to Andy for putting our banner on his land.