Cheshire East Council (CEC) has agreed to transfer the three allotment sites in the village to Alderley Edge Parish Council (AEPC).
The allotments at Beech Close, Chorley Hall Lane and Heyes Lane will be transferred by way of a long lease to the Parish Council with restrictive covenants protecting their use for allotments, as agreed by the Cabinet in September 2011.
As a result of the relatively large number of objections and public interest, the decision to dispose of the Alderley Edge allotments was deferred to the relevant portfolio holder.
Cabinet Members for Communities & Regulatory Services and Prosperity & Economic Regeneration met on Monday, 18th June, to consider five options for the transfer of the allotments.
Councillor Jamie Macrae, Cabinet member in charge of prosperity and economic regeneration, said: "It has been agreed that the allotment sites will be offered to Alderley Edge Parish Council by long leases of 125 years with restrictive covenants preserving their use as allotments.
"This is in accordance with the agreed Cabinet decision on September 5, 2011 and is consistent with transfers which will take place elsewhere in Cheshire East.
"A covenant in each lease would prohibit the parish council from using the land other than for allotments, transferring the sites to a third party or sub-leasing them to anyone other than an allotment society or holders."
Now that the transfer has been agreed, AEPC will take a number of steps to progress with their plans to relocate the Heyes Lane allotments to land off Netherfields, which belongs to Alderley Edge School for Girls, where they could create 60 plots and virtually wipe out the waiting list for allotments - whilst providing a modern allotment facility with parking and a water supply.
This will enable them to use the Heyes Lane site to provide additional parking for the new Medical Centre and revamped Festival Hall. AEPC are hoping to create a new main entrance off Heyes Lane, retaining the majority of the allotments as gardens, incorporating the bowling green that was behind the Royal Oak pub and creating parking areas using grass crete.
The Parish Council has also said that the Heyes Lane allotment site could house the Alderley Edge Motor Co, a private company which is currently located on Trafford Road where the site owner Russell Homes is seeking to build a residential development.
However, the Heyes Lane site was gifted to the Council's predecessor authority in 1917 subject to a covenant that it could not be used other than as open space, recreational ground, playing fields, allotments and public gardens so AEPC will have to obtain permission from De Trafford Estates for that covenant to be lifted.
They will then need to approach the Secretary of State and request permission to relocate the allotments. The North West Allotment Association will be consulted on the proposed move.
If the Secretary of State consents to the transfer of the Heyes Lane allotments to land behind Netherfields then AEPC will need to go back to CEC, as landowners, to discuss their future plans and obtain permission.
Cllr Frank Keegan confirmed that now that the decision has been made to go ahead, the Parish Council will arrange to take over the running of the allotments.
He said "The Parish Council supports allotments and will seek to enhance facilities at Beech Road and Chorley Hall Lane, and we look forward to working with the allotment holders on those sites.
"The Heyes Lane allotment site will be submitted to North West Allotments Association and the Minister at DCLG for permission to transfer the site to a larger site, partly in order to deal with the waiting list.
"Despite the waiting list, the Parish Council would seek to accommodate existing allotment holders from outside the village although we recognise that there would be a growing pressure from waiting list members who are Alderley Edge taxpayers if they have to continue to wait."
Cllr Keegan added "The Parish Council will now consult with the residents of Alderley Edge on the way forward for facilities, recognising that the future of certain facilities will be easier with public support. Hopefully the Parish Council can issue a consultation document after the summer break, when the electorate are returned from their holidays.
"The future of the Medical Centre and the facilities at the Festival Hall could have been in jeopardy if the allotments had not been handed back, so I am delighted that we can now get on and open discussions with allotment holders about the future."
Plans to relocate the Heyes Lane allotments have been met with some resistance from a mixture of allotment holders and concerned local residents. A community action group was set up to save Heyes Lane allotments and the Council received 129 objections when they announced their intention to dispose of Heyes Lane, Chorley Hall Lane and Beech Close allotment sites.
Alderley Edge resident John Sanderson, who has an allotment on Heyes Lane, said "Today's decision is good news for our campaign. Inclusion of a new covenant in the lease for the transfer of the allotments to AEPC means that there is now another layer of protection.
"To change the use of the Heyes Lane site, AEPC will have to: buy out the De Trafford covenant - compensating all those who have benefited from it and secure approval from the Secretary of State and now, secure approval from Cheshire East Council.
"It will be difficult and expensive for AEPC to win and it is now more likely than it was, that they will lose. Covenant law is complicated and court cases can rumble on for years. We would like common sense to prevail and for AEPC to accept that it probably cannot now succeed in obtaining vacant possession of Heyes Lane allotments and so it is not worth the time and expense of fighting on."
Speaking at the end of yesterday's meeting Cllr Rachel Bailey, Communities and Regulatory Services Portfolio Holder, said "I am content this process is consistent with similar transfers of long leases for allotments.
"Most importantly I very much welcome the commitment to consult made by Cllr Keegan with the local community and particularly allotment holders. I very much hope localism can come into being and there will be good communication with Alderley Edge Parish Council, the community and allotment holders."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I'm disappointed that the allotments on Heyes Lane have been transferred to the Local Parish Council, given their stubborn pursuit of this proposal which has generated significant opposition. (Clive, if it has also generated significant support, show us!) However, I am hopeful that there are enough hurdles in the way to obstruct the construction of a car park on valuable green space in the midst of our village. And I trust the Parish Council's consultation will be given due care and attention, given the sensitivity of the issue.
Are the heyes lane allotments safe or does Aepc still have its eyes on them ?
You are unkind in your comment. I have followed this story closely for ten months. Nowhere have I seen unbalanced reporting. On the contrary, the lady who runs this excellent site goes out of her way to write the best factual unbiased balanced reports I can imagine. She does her own research, attends all the relevant council meetings and does her own interviews and much of the photography. As far as I know she has some help from her husband but mostly she does the reporting on her own. She is a village treasure. All the quotations are reproduced accurately, as far as my own are concerned, and quotes from different sides are sought and published.
There are surely some people who support AEPC in what they are trying to do but my information is that there are few of them. I guess there are single figures as a percentage. The objection letters referred to in the article totalled 129 relating to Heyes Lane and a further 162 related to the other two sites. In the summary produced by Cheshire East there is no mention of a minority view and from this I infer that there were very few indeed. In a street survey at the AE Christmas street market, there was an overwhelming majority opposing our AEPC. In the hundreds of comment submitted to this website following articles in the past ten months, there is a massive majority opposing the AEPC in its plans. Anyone can do the count for themselves.
Don't be too disappointed with the result. It was the best we could expect in all the circumstances. Option 2 which was a much more restricted lease, came out of the objection letters but this was seen as against the spirit and policy of disposal to local councils. Option 3 was to do nothing. Option 4 was ours also and was to transfer the lease into a Community Interest Company under the Localism Act which would have been a good long term solution. This was in effect the fall back position which we feel will be applied if the transfer is now refused by AEPC. Option 5 was requested by AEPC and was to transfer the freehold to them. It would have been a bad result for us.
We might make moves to take the lease off AEPC if they do not manage the allotments well. The electors are permitted to do this under Localism. So, AEPC will need to watch their steps. They would be best advised to drop their hated plans.
129 people wrote in, and they quoted objections from a leaflet prepared by the Heyes Lane Allotment holders; the same 129 also mentioned the other two sites, so there were not a further 162, just 2 out of 3 also mentioned all sites.
AEPC will now make plans to discuss matters with the moderate wing of the Allotment members, and to arrange how we can help the other 2 sites. We can also make plans to register the holders. AEPC wants to work constructively with people who have allotments and those on the waiting list: we want to protect the facilities in the village, and then we want to enhance some facilities - such as the Festival Hall. There is a mechanism we have to follow in order to move Allotments from an existing site, and we will follow that protocol and work with the North West Allotments Society.
In moving forward we will put a proposal to the Allotments Society and we would hope to get the majority society approval, which includes all 3 sites, not just Heyes Lane.
I recognise people are usually more vocal when they are opposed to something, rather than in support and many won't be too concerned either way - but unless I have this information it would be wrong for me to have written about the support.
The reason the opposition to the plans is mentioned in this article is because "As a result of the relatively large number of objections and public interest, the decision to dispose of the Alderley Edge allotments was deferred to the relevant portfolio holder" and as a result the meeting on Monday took place which I attended.
There was no mention in the report of residents expressing support to the Council.
John Sanderson, who has vocally opposed these plans, also attended Monday's meeting where the decision was made. Had any members of the public attended that meeting in support of the PCs plan then they would also have invited them to comment.
I spoke with Cllr Keegan immediately after the meeting, inviting him to comment on the decision and the next steps in the process for the Parish Council. One of the questions I asked him was "Why is this (their plans) so important for the village?". The reason I asked this was to give the Parish Council another opportunity to explain what they hope to do and why, so residents could form their own opinion and to provide some balance.
Now that the transfer of allotments to the Parish Council has been agreed they will be progressing with their plans and intend to go out to consultation, probably in September. I will be covering these plans in more detail on alderleyedge.com as the information becomes available and local people will have more opportunity to express their views.
As you are aware of people who support these plans then feel free to suggest they comment on this article, maybe this will help address what you feel is unbalanced reporting.
don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot