Alderley Edge Parish Council is calling on more volunteers to step forward to enable the village to produce a Neighbourhood Plan.
Neighbourhood Plans allow communities to say what they want their priorities to be over the next 15 years and once completed they have the power of the law. Planning Officers will refer to Neighbourhood Plans when considering planning applications for new developments in and around the village, which means they can have a real and positive impact on the village's future.
Speaking at the Annual Parish Meeting on Monday, 8th May, Geoff Hall, Chairman of Alderley Edge Parish Council, described the Neighbourhood Plan as "vital if we want to protect our village from indiscriminate development over the period to 2030 and beyond."
During the last year the Parish Council has organised two public meetings to promote the Neighbourhood Plan. Subsequently they have commissioned a group of graduate urban planning students at the University of Manchester to gather data about the village and highlight issues for action. They will be reporting back to the Parish Council shortly.
The Parish Council has also recently carried out a survey of residents to identify the issues that most concern them. 2500 questionnaires were delivered to households in Alderley Edge asking local residents for their views on what aspects of living in Alderley Edge are important, where new houses should be built in the village and what type of new housing is needed. The questionnaire also asked for their views on car parking, transportation, local facilities and improvements to the village centre.
The Parish Council received about 400 completed copies and have now commissioned Cheshire Community Action to analyse those responses. They hope to get their initial report by the end of this month and will also be carrying out a survey of businesses in the village shortly.
Councillor Geoff Hall said "We still need more volunteers to help us with the Neighbourhood Plan so if you are involved and know someone who can help or you are not involved and would like to be this would be very valuable to us.
"It is very important that this plan isn't purely done by the Parish Council, it needs to be independent and involve as many people as possible."
Having a Neighbourhood Plan in place also has significant financial implications for the village.
Alderley Edge is expected to provide land for roughly 100 new homes as a Local Service Centre in the Cheshire East Local Plan.
Speaking at the Annual Parish Council Meeting on Monday, 8th May, Councillor Craig Browne said "It is not within our gift to refuse this allocation, so the challenge is for us to make it work in the best interests of the whole community, ensuring we get the improvements we need to our parking, road and amenity infrastructure as part of the deal.
"This is why we have reluctantly agreed to support the proposals for the development of 50 houses on the land north of Beech Road and a further 50 houses on the land opposite Horseshoe Farm. Each development includes firm proposals for the delivery of either a new 50-space car park close to the village; or delivery of an alternative (and much improved) allotment site, which would finally allow us to progress the Heyes Lane Car Park proposal."
If these two developments went ahead, the Parish Council would qualify for a for a Community Infrastructure Levy payment of £168 per square metre. If the village has a Neighbourhood Plan in place then the Parish Council would directly receive a payment of approximately £1m but if we don't have a Neighbourhood Plan in place this would drop to £600,000.
Councillor Browne added "This money would be used to invest in local infrastructure which have been identified through the Neighbourhood Plan."
