Alderley could lose "valuable service"

I don't want to offend anyone or anything but I never knew we had a town centre manager.

Could someone fill me in on what this persons been doing. As I say I'm not trying to be smart or anything but this is news to me and if shes been costing us £60-80,000 a year thats a bit alarming.

I cannot agree with Mike's comments enough - again, no direct offence - but I've never heard of this position, and what does this role involve?

I believe the average wage in the country is about £25,000 (depending on who is quoting the numbers) - so as tax payers we are paying 3 times the average wage for a 'town centre manager'...is this some sort of joke?

Well I am totally shocked by the two previous comments - or do they bury their heads in the sand.

Diane has been a valuable asset to the village over the last few years in Alderley Edge and to many other East Cheshire towns and villages.

Without her support and help the village would not have see some of the special events and promotions which we have had over the last few years. As ex Traders Association Chairman who passed my duties on to Mitch Gilbert from Rainbow Balloons, Diane has been a constant support to us for events and promotions in the village and even at this years very success Alderley Edge Christmas lights switch event she was frantically running around trying to make the event happen with local council amenities support.

Without her help i very much doubt we would get the support needed to help our local village amenities survive. Maybe Mike Norbury and Tim Churchill might want suggest how they might use that money to better use to promote and market our dying high streets of East Cheshire towns and villages.

CE have to make cutbacks somewhere in order to give the low paid council workers that have not had a pay rise for two years the 1% rise stated for april - yes 1%

I agree with Tim and Mike. Paying a corporate salary for someone to run around at Christmas fayres seems to me a poor use of public money.

The trouble with uninformed comment is the damage it does.

For many years Macclesfield had a Town Centres Manager (TCM) who covered Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Knutsford, Poynton, Bollington, Handforth and, of course, Alderley Edge.

The Village Enhancement Committee knew our TCM very well because she came and listened to ideas and went back and made them happen at Town Hall. The TCM supports traders and supports community markets, and, for example, the Lights switch on. The list is very long, and as a Councillor I have visited Mayor's AT HOMES in most of these places above, and the one person EVERYONE knows is the TCM.

Thank you Frank for explaining the role, as I said Anna - until I saw the headline on here I did not know we had a TCM that's all. Uninformed maybe, or just too busy keeping my head above water rather than in the sand.

Revitalising town centres - a bit like Christine Munro tries to do to bring life into Alderley Edge?

Or Debbie Quinn and Jane Munroe running Treacle market in Macc on a Sunday, revitalised and thronged with happy punters - a far cry from the usual town centre scene .

The trouble with uninformed comment is that it comes from uninformed people - why are they uninformed?

To make reference to another thread - If we have a fully functional TCM, why do we need to spend £119k looking at ways in which our village centre could be improved?

With regard to organising functions such as switching on the lights. We used to organise very successful Rose Queen and Village Fetes in Alderley Edge - all on a voluntary basis.

Sally Hirst
Parish Councillor, Mr. Keegan, could you please educate the people of Alderley Edge further about the TCM. Which ideas did theTown Hall implement based on the TCM going to the Village Enhancement Committee? Anna Fern, please could you expand on what the TCM has achieved in helping the village with special events and promotions over the last few years? Thank you.
I have just read the interesting article about next years Christmas switch on and Christmas fair. The councillors voiced their thoughts. Could we have comments from our TCM please.

I am a town centre trader.

I read this aticle this morning and was suprised to find out we have a town centre manager, so I spoke to my mother who has been a village trader for 40 years to see if she knew Diane Smith and she too was suprised to find out that we have a town centre manager.

It would have been nice to have known this lady, it would have come in handy from time to time to have contacted her over town centre issues.

But that is all by the by as her position is being cut, I hope we manage to get by without her.

Heather,

I am surprised your mother did not know that we had a regular sweeper service in the village in the mornings, with the little street sweeper. Also for many years we have had hanging baskets in London Road, Christmas Trees - lights - switch ons with the aid of MBC men and vehicles, car parks resurfaced, and lots of other issues. All of the functions which MBC then CEC have done over the years have been the result of the TCM.

Years ago, when your father had great difficulty in persuading the traders to cough up for the Christmas lights, it was the TCM who persuaded the Parish to take on the funding and who provided the borough council resources to facilitate it all. TCM also had a role in promoting local markets.

Sally Hirst,
It would be the TCM who organised the event of the village having a lights switch on in London Road with the road closed - free of charge. The TCM has done a tremendous amount of work in influencing Council Departments about the policies which are enforced in Town Centres. Staff in Town Halls don't understand local areas, but TCM's make them realise the impact of policies on real businesses.

As i said i was trader in the village for 17 years and I am 100% behind trying to protect our high street. Its seems our PM is also concerned about the threat of loosing our independent retailers as he recently commissioned Mary Portas to compile a report on how the high street may be saved. Alderley Edge like many other villages and towns has been no acception and has seen a tremendous loss of shops in just 10 years. A town manager is there to help promote the town/village and many larger towns have a dedicated TM. As a marketing person i actually believe its essential to have someone there to promote our village on a local level and wider regional level and TM should be involved in all aspects of events and promotions. As i said its nearly 7 years since i traded in Alderley and as a ex chairman of the TA, Diane would work alongside us to help us organize and promote an event. The traders in my experience have enough on the plate trying to run and promote their own business and apart from a handfull of support from dedicated traders, thats sadly not enough. I am very saddened you didn't know Diane but maybe it was the chairpersons who got most involved with her. As someone who now looks on as village life goes on, I also find it very sad that people are so quick to criticise and yet have very little knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes. If it hadn't been for two certain individuals who were dedicated and worked so hard this year, you wouldn't have had a Alderley Edge Christmas lights switch on at all.

Thank you Frank Keegan and Anna Fern for answering my questions.
Our new chair, Mitch Gilbert has put masses of energy and time into events over many years and I wish him much support and success.
I look back at old pictures of Alderley Edge. A number of the shops actually used to be homes with little front gardens and fancy iron fencing around, and the area with the co-op and waitrose used to be a yard. Maybe Mary Portas and Alderley could think about how many shops are actually needed in a village. The apartments near to the library are a good indication of how shops can be turned into attractive homes. I know.... I am away with the fairies and Father Christmas!

need I mention the name wenzel? when we are talking about over paying for a Cheshire East Service. I feel I must but I doubt it'll be published. Our PM makes Less a year than the CEO of CEC and she seems totally unconcerned about anything. I support the halle orchestra but was surprised to see CEC also sponsors them. Why? is central Manchester part of Cheshire East? Or is it simply to ensure a few junkets for councilors. I've been in the village over 30 years and I had no idea we had a town centre manager either.

Giles - I wouldn't be so concerned for our dear PM. He'll make his money once he has left office. Blair has reportedly earned over £10 million already since leaving office, including been paid £2000 per minute in after dinner speaches to London's fat cats. Cameron is a polished performer like Blair and will command similar rates (although by the time he leaves I guess most countries in Europe will be bankrupt, the Euro will be dead and the fat cats will be sipping milk instead of dribbling over steak chops so there is a good chance his services may be out of favour).

Regarding, the article at hand, it is not unusual for a town like AE to have a TCM. My own reaction to the article was not through being unaware that we had a TCM, but rather how much it was costing us. The previous Labour government took counsel on local town deveopment and partnerships in about 2005. The consultancy paper that followed recommended a TCM for each town across the UK. However, the role outlined was that of coordinator or organiser, promarily responsible for bringing the relevant stakeholders together and to make town events happen. The role was not designed to have people management or budgetary responsibilty. The national average for this position is approximately £35k ranging from £25k (junior/assistant) to £50k (senior in a large town).

Unless I have misunderstood the article, the rate for our own TCM appears to be considerably higher than the national average. This was my main, if only, reaction to this article: why am I paying so much for this resource at a rate above matket value? (From my experience in the private sector I could never justify more than £35-£40k pa for a role that was in essence that of co-ordinator).

However, what do I know? I am just an ill-informed and ignorant voter. :)

Please settle down before Christmas, and reflect. The TCM covers a range of Towns, Wilmslow, Macclesfield, Bollington, Knutsford, Handforth and Alderley Edge.

Cheshire East quoted Knutsford £12k pa for a 1 day a week service; in other words they are trying to recoup £60k over 5 days. That recovery rate will include the OVERHEAD RECOVERY of Town Hall which is probably around 150% of salary. So if that represents 250% of salary, to cover 6 Towns/Villages, the service is extremely reasonable and (in the case of Alderley) included an awful lot of out of hours contact - (i.e. after 5pm, when lots of other Officers had gone home)

The rate of service we get is good, and, judging by the last comment, we are getting a service way below the national average for what was not just a Town but the whole of Macclesfield Borough.

I can confirm with Mr. Keegan when he stated that Diane used to come to the Village Enhancement Committee meetings and did her best to make things happen for Alderley. She was a very pleasant lady.