Alderley Edge Parish Council (AEPC) are set to take ownership of the three allotment sites in the village.
Parish councillors voted in October to take ownership from Cheshire East Council (CEC) of the allotments on Heyes Lane, Beech Close and Chorley Hall Lane and requested that they take them over as early as they can.
The transfer of full responsibility for the village allotments to AEPC is part of the transfer of services and assets programme which will see other local towns and villages take over responsibility for key assets such as markets, community centres and public toilet blocks.
CEC proposes to dispose of these public open spaces, in accordance with Section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 118 of the Local Planning and Land Act 1980) by way of a long lease.
In October the Parish Council announced controversial plans to turn the Heyes Lane allotments into a car park and relocate the allotment holders to a site at the end of Lydiat Lane, which is currently owned by Alderley Edge School for Girls.
The proposed new site, behind Netherfields, is two and a half times the size of the Heyes Lane site and they would expect to fit about 55 allotment plots on the land.
In response, Alderley Edge resident John Sanderson, who has an allotment on Heyes Lane, set up a community action group to fight the Parish Council's plans to turn the plots into a car park.
He told me "Alderley Edge Allotments and Gardens Society requested that the allotments in Alderley Edge be transferred to them under the Localism Act rather than to AEPC. The CEC Leader refused the request on the basis that CEC made its decision last September.
"The next step is for residents and organisations to write to The Borough Solicitor of CEC, before 13th March, to object to the allotments being transferred to AEPC and to include reasons for the objections. The Action Group which meets every two weeks at Power Engineering Consultants is the best focus for advice on these objection letters."
Cheshire East Council confirmed in November that the Heyes Lane allotments are protected by a covenant which restricts their use.
Councillor Rod Menlove, Cabinet member for environmental services, said "Heyes Lane allotments were given to the village by the De Traffords in 1917 and there is a covenant attached to them which restricts their use as an open space, recreation ground, playing fields, allotments or public gardens."
What is unclear though is how significant the covenant is and what affect, if any, it will have on the plans to relocate the allotments and use the land for a public car park.
Cllr Frank Keegan confirmed at last month's meeting of AEPC, on Monday 13th February, that the transfer of allotments is expected to take place at the end of March.
I contacted CEC the same evening to ask for confirmation of when they intend to transfer the allotments to AEPC and requested the following information:
1. What is happening in terms of the covenant and plans to turn the allotments into a car park?
2. I was told this evening, by a member of the action group set up to save the allotments, that the covenant has been mislaid - is this correct?
3. Can the allotments be transferred without the covenant and clarification of what it says?
I am still waiting for a response.
Public notices were placed in the Wilmslow Express last week, which highlights how ridiculous it is that legislation forces councils to spend public money placing notices in the local press.
The circulation of the Wilmslow Express in SK9 7 is 1667 copies per week, our monthly readership on alderleyedge.com alone is between 12,000 and 13,000 unique browsers, and that excludes the growing number of people using our iPhone app. We would be more than happy to post public notices for free if the council made them available in a suitable format.
Full details of the proposal have been deposited together with plans at the CEC offices at Westfields in Sandbach. They may be inspected free of charge during normal office hours and copies of the proposal and plans can be bought from the office for £2.
Any representation or objection with respect to the proposal should be sent in writing to Caroline Elwood, Borough Solicitor, Legal Services, Cheshire East Borough Council, Westfields, Middlewich Road, Sandbach, CW11 1HZ quoting reference SP.JG-Beech/SP.JG-ChorleyHall/SP.JG-Heyes no later than Wednesday March 21st. Please state the grounds on which the representation or objection is made.
Updated 4pm, Tuesday 6th March.
The following statement has been received from Cheshire East Council:
Councillor Rachel Bailey, Cabinet member for safer and stronger communities, said: "Cheshire East Council is committed to working alongside our town and parish councils to transfer a number of assets to them, such as allotments, so that the community has more choice and control over local facilities and buildings.
“Alderley Edge Allotments is one of those that will transfer to Alderley Edge Parish Council at the beginning of April.
“Cheshire East Council will maintain the freehold title on all allotments, and Alderley Edge Parish will be offered a long lease of between 99 – 125 years.
“Heyes Lane Allotments were given to the village by the De Traffords in 1917 and there is a covenant attached to them which restricts their use to an open space, recreation ground, playing fields, allotments or public gardens.
"Any covenants that are in place will remain and we are not aware of the said covenant having been mislaid. In any event the covenant will be on file with the Land Registry.
“Covenants such as these may be overturned. In this case the applicant would need to seek permission from the descendants of the De Traffords family.
“If permission were granted, the applicant would then need to apply for planning permission to Cheshire East Council.
“If approved, the applicant would then need to apply to the Secretary of State for the covenant to be officially removed.”
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
1 Alderley edge allotment and garden society has leased these sites off cheshire /macc borough council for 50-60 years why not allow them to continue to be in control of the allotment sites? they are after all a society of garden enthusiasts.
2 Clr Keegan has stated his intention to turn one site into a car park already how could anyone guarantee the other sites - or park or football pitch - would not be next in his firing line.
3 the residents down Netherfields are opposed to ANY developement or change of use of the fields proposed as a new allotment site due to increased traffic etc down an already congested part of the village.
4 the rest of the country is trying to encourage biodiversity, local projects to encourage people to grow more veg etc AEPC want to tarmac theirs over mainly because of one person's grandiose pipedream.
Please put into writing any objections and let's try and keep our green spaces safe from development.
You are right about the medical practice not needing any additional parking provision and there is no statement that there is in the new medical centre plans. For this reason the planning process will not consider parking. That is how I understand it. Nevertheless, my expectation is that the Parish Council will seize on the medical centre development to justify moving allotment holders off the Heyes Lane site. In this sense, the medical centre and the future of Heyes Lane allotments are linked. The doctors of George Street have no part in this and I am sure they would wish there to be no link.
The other factor is the introduction of resident parking permits which create pressure on shopper parking. This is bad news for High Street businesses but good news for the Parish Council who want additional reasons for putting car parking on the Heyes Lane site. Resident parking permits on Lydiat Lane which will ease traffic there in the short term will result in vastly increased traffic if the Parish Council get their way and create allotments on the AESG playing field.
1. I do not know of any plan to turn the whole of the Heyes Lane site into one large parking area.
2. Any use of the Netherfield site would (I believe) involve making access much easier and so would (I hope) not impinge too much on the people living there. Also there is to be (I am given to understand) residents' parking permits in the area, which should decrease congestion.
3.Why might going from a small site to a much larger site adversely affect biodiversity? Surely the contrary?
4 Going on about the De Trafford Estate covenant may be pointless until we have all read it; I certainly haven't.
5 The plans for the new medical centre show circa 35 parking spaces... take out some for disabled, some for staff, there may be a physic and/or dentist in there; not so many 'spare' parking places at all? Certainly many less than there are at this time.
6 Why compare the awful lack of parking at present at George St. with whatever the eventual situation at the new centre? Anything would be an improvement on the present virtually no parking system?
7 The residents of various roads in the village have fought long and hard to get 'residents' permits'; somehow this is supposed to be good news for the Parish Council as it allows car parking on the allotment site? Conspiracy theory gone mad!
8 There seems to be a belief amongst some that the Parish Council wants only to dispossess the allotment holders, for no good reason; that's just silly.
9 Why can't the allotment holders 'have' the site? Because Cheshire East have refused so to do; please do not blame the Parish Council for that decision.
10 Remember that most of the above depends on the new Medical Centre getting the go-ahead and that's not yet happened.
11 Why would anyone even remotely suspect that the park might be under some threat? I have sweated blood over the park for the last few years, getting all the improvements in place and I can assure you that if anyone has ideas about turning the park into a parking lot, I'll be the first one at the barricades!
Dialogue, disputation, democratic disagreement are good but please get rid of false rumours, chinese whispers and fairy tales as they only cloud what is already a complex subject.
Chinese whispers, fairy tales and all such imaginings are what you get when you, the Parish Council, announce half baked plans.via internet blogs. You have failed to communicate serious well considered plans during 6 months following your first announcement. What else are we to conclude other than that you cannot be trusted and are not worthy of being owners and managers of the allotments in our village. If you had shown any competence in the management of the Festival Hall we might all feel a little better. You admit that the issue of parking on Heyes Lane allotments is inextricably linked to the new medical centre. You state that the park is safe from development, OK, but you do not mention the football field. Tell us all clearly now you have no hidden agenda that includes developing the football field for other purposes. Tell us. We are waiting to read it.
John... We as a Parish Council have not announced any plans (I'm assuming that you are referring to the allotments?), half-baked or fully baked because there is as yet no Parish Council actual policy on the eventual fate of the Hayes Lane allotment site. Why not? Well for one thing, C.E. have decided that they wish to hand over the allotments on a fixed-term lease; the which we have yet to see and I'm dammed if I'll vote to accept an unseen lease!
Competence in management of the Festival Hall? Until the question of the Medical Centre is settled, we will not lash out huge amounts of your money on the building; we have in the interim had prepared a survey of the building and as you might expect, after many years of not-being-well-maintained by M.B.C. the Hall is in a poor condition. We have recently appointed a salaried Hall manager to control bookings etc. and to be i/c of patching up and decorations.
The football field? (you do mean the C.Hall Lane field?). Its owned by C.E. and rented out to a (imho) fully competent football group. The only thing I've had to do with it is getting C.E. to relay a blocked drain in one corner of the field; I was only involved in that as the flooding impinged on the garden of a lady living alongside. I have no intention of or knowledge of the long-term fate of the football field; is that clear enough for you? Of course, what may happen to the football field over the next 5 to 10 years or so, is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.
You write that the 'issue of parking on Hayes Lane allotments is inextricably linked to the new medical centre' as though that were some secret conspiracy that you have valiently uncovered...of course the two are linked...and no doubt also to future parking needs in the whole village...the Parish Council tries to consider what is the best course of events for the majority (it would be nice to get everyone to agree, but there's little hope of that).
By the way, most of our plans are readable in the Parish Council minutes.
First of all, I do thank you for bravely responding.
Re. the football field, you gave a fudged answer, sorry. I asked you to tell us all clearly that you [the PC] have no hidden agenda that includes developing the football field for other purposes.
You tell us the Parish Council have not announced any plans, half baked or otherwise regarding Heyes Lane. I am dismayed. Councillor Keegan, as a spokesman for the Parish Council, spoke at length to the allotment society in September to explain some of the Parish Council intentions. Since then, he has posted maybe 50 comments on alderleyedge.com and made umpteen statements published in the Wilmslow Express. He and the Parish Council chairman have had several meetings with relevant Cheshire East cabinet members to explain PC plans for Heyes Lane. The Heyes Lane allotments were carefully surveyed by a local developer and plans prepared in conjunction with your spokesperson. These plans are used in your secret committees and in meetings outside with other parties but they are kept secret from the public. Dozens of residents have spent hundreds of hours researching, discussing, worrying and organising counter strategies. Have you any idea how many folk are upset? My scathing remarks about the Parish Council in my last post seem, in all the circumstances, to be fully justified. I encourage you to disassociate yourself from the shabby conspiracy that is taking place in the Parish Council. Others may well join you.
1. A fudged answer to your query about some hidden agenda to develop the footy field for other purposes? What more can I say? There is no (repeat no) agenda, hidden or otherwise, to re-develop that footy field; but how on earth can I say what will happen in the years ahead? (my psychic abilities have faded with the years!).
2. Councilor Keegan is a big boy and can speak for himself; many ideas are floating arount re. the eventual future of the Hayes Lane allotments site, but there is not, to the best of my knowledge, any voted-for single plan from the Parish Council.
3. Secret committees? What pray are they? Are the masons at it? Is the secret protocol of zion involved ? Where are the 'secret seven' ? Has Da Vinci got a new code out?
4. Meetings outside with other parties? Yes, guilty there! I talk about the allotments and the footy field outside...with fellow dog walkers, neighbours and folk on the streets of the village.
5. Am I (we) keeping things secret from the public? Mostly we only talk about these things during Parish Council meetings; I tend not to see most of my fellow Councilors at other times. So do come along and listen to us; but be prepared to be bored!
John, I suspect that I will not be able to convince you that the Parish Council are just a group of normal people doing a localisation job as best we can; so good luck at hunting us devils down.