Alderley Edge Parish Council has agreed to fund a clean of the pavements alongside London Road next year.
The clean will be done by a company who have carried out similar works in Altrincham and Wilmslow at a cost of £6700 + vat.
The work has been booked in for March 24, it will be a one off clean unless the Parish Council agrees to fund it again in the future.
Councillor Rachael Grantham said "We are lucky to have a vibrant high street and groups of volunteers who keep it looking clean., tidy and well looked after, however we feel this cleaning programme will give it an extra boost.
"It is more important than ever we support our local businesses and making London Road as attractive as possible can only help encourage that."
Comments
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The verges in several places have been allowed to become overgrown and in some places such as Ryleys Lane (opp Chorley Old Hall) the combination of overgrown verge / narrow pavement / bend in road represents a real danger.
Also, some elderley folk, and others with limited mobility, are deterred from visiting the village by a lack of resting places (benches)
If I may clarify, the pavement cleaning is to be funded by Alderley Edge Parish Council, rather than Cheshire East Council. The Parish Council is not responsible for footpath repairs or street cleaning; however, it has chosen to make this investment to help improve the visual appearance of the village centre.
Ideally, footway cleansing would be carried out by Cheshire East Council; however, the Parish Council has recognised that Cheshire East Council simply does not have the resources to do this. The grant that Cheshire East Council receives from central government for highways maintenance was cut by 21% (c.£4m) three years ago; a grant that is now sufficient to fund the replacement of just 6km of the council's 2,700km road network.
A recent report by the Local Government Association illustrates how funding for road maintenance by the UK government is now 50% (£2bn annually) less than in 2006 and that the UK is joint bottom of the G7 group of industrialised nations for investment in road and transport infrastructure maintenance - https://www.local.gov.uk/about/news/pothole-repair-funding-uk-has-reduced-more-majority-other-oecd-nations-lga-analysis.
Cheshire East Council has attempted to address this by investing an additional £19m in highways maintenance over a three-year period (we are now approximately 18 months into that three-year period), but this has had to be funded by borrowing the money and of course the repayment costs are now much higher due to interest rates also being much higher.
Kind regards,
Craig
I live in Wilmslow and I have seen the improvements to the streets in the town centre where this work has been carried out. My own personal opinion is that it was money well spent. In Wilmslow, this work was commissioned by the Board of the Business Improvement District (BID) and not the Parish / Town Council. Alderley Edge (AE) does not have a BID so this is not an option in AE. I can only assume that the councillors of AEPC have also seen improvements to the streets in Wilmslow and Altrincham and want to do the same in AE.
Regarding Dog Fouling. Dog fouling is a civil offence and happens because dog owners don't clean up after THEIR dog, or allow them to roam the streets on their own. It is not something AEPC can clamp down on, or enforce as it is a Statutory duty of Cheshire East Council to do this. If AEPC did do this then they would be breaking the law and be liable to a court order and a hefty fine, And before you all comment about CEC not doing this, I can say that they do. However, their Civil Enforcement Officers cannot be everywhere all of the time. If that is what you want then expect to see a huge increase in your council tax.
Similarly, the CCTV is the responsibility of CEC and not AEPC. AEPC only makes a financial contribution to CEC for the operation and maintenance of it.
Regarding overgrown verges. I assume these are on the public highway. Again this is not something that AEPC can spend money on or enforce as it is a Statutory duty of Cheshire East Council to do this. If AEPC did do this then they would be breaking the law and be liable to another court order and a hefty fine. If you are referring to overgrown hedges that narrow the pavement width, then this is the responsibility of the owner of the hedge. Which, will on the majority of occasions be on private property and not the public highway. All CEC can do is to ask the owner to cut it back within a reasonable time frame. If they don’t, only then can CEC cut it back and only on the grounds of highway safety. Remember the time when a private wall fell down onto the highway on Brook Lane?
See https://tinyurl.com/2p8t5se2.
In Wilmslow, there was one hell of an outcry by a resident when their hedge (which was encroaching well onto the public highway) was lawfully cut back by contractors installing a replacement streetlight on behalf of CEC.
See https://tinyurl.com/bdz3yn2u.
I hope this is informative and helps deter further uninformed complaints aimed at the unpaid councillors of AEPC.
And before you ask. Yes I am neurodivergent.
Thank you Stewart for reminding us of the ongoing unresolved saga.
Yesterday I walked on the path (snicket / ginnel) between Heyes Lane and the Festival Hall and noticed someone had blown all the leaves and debris away from that area ... I presume this has been done by the Council Linesman (is that the correct title) ? ... Anyway, many thanks, to whoever, for doing this.