Cheshire East Council has found some additional funds which are being used to deliver improvement to the village park.
A total of £19,611 is available for Public Open Space improvements, assigned to Alderley Edge Park. Of this, approximately £8,000 will be used to purchase three or four items of outdoor gym equipment, which the Parish Council is supplementing with a contribution of £4,000 to add an extra couple of pieces of equipment.
Councillor Craig Browne said "When Cheshire East Council published and consulted on the Park Masterplan towards the end of 2019/20, a number of people commented that they would like to see more provision for adults rather than just young people, so this investment is in response to that. The addition of the gym equipment will also require the installation of new safety surfacing, as shown in the attached photo, which will be funded from the residue of the s.106 monies.
"At the same time, we are looking to remove the old red and yellow tables/chairs near the bandstand (which are not very comfortable to sit on) and replace them with a couple of new accessible picnic style benches, similar to the one that was installed in the infant play are back in 2016. If resources allow, we are also seeking to replace and upgrade the old ball chute in the children's play area, which had seen better days and was finally damaged beyond repair several months ago."
Additionally, residual s.106 funds have been identified for Recreational & Outdoor Sport (£5,077) and these will be used to improve the tennis courts and the boundary to the bowling green in the park.
Councillor Craig Browne added "S.106 funds are monies that are secured to mitigate for the loss of open space caused by development that has already taken place within the village (for example, the former Yesterday's Hotel development); they are not raised through Council Tax, but from the site developers and their use is carefully set out in legal agreements that accompany planning permission. Such funds cannot be used for routine maintenance."
Comments
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With the recent bandstand fire it’s clear we have anti social people visiting the park with no sense of respect who seem to enjoy destroying council owned property.
2. I am at a loss as to the possibility of removing the two metal seat/table by the playground(the red and yellow ones).
They may be old but they are made of steel and so pretty much unbreakable.
Why remove them and then replace them with an alternative structure? By all means put in another table/seat, but why remove the red/yellow?
Perhaps a brief history of the two? There used to be a wooden structure there, but the vandals burnt it down. That was replaced by a (sort of) metal seating, made from bottle tops, which was also in due course ruined. The red & yellow are made of steel and a goodly part of the structure is buried underground; vandal proof?