Alderley Edge Parish Council (AEPC) will be making a number of decisions about the future of the Heyes Lane allotments at their monthly meeting next week.
Having taken over the management of the three allotment sites in the village from Cheshire East Council (CEC) by way of a long lease, the Parish Council will vote on a number of motions on Monday, 11th March, regarding their future use.
Alderley Edge Parish Council will discuss seeking approval from DCLG to convert Heyes Lane Allotment site into a car park for the benefit of the Medical Centre, the Festival Hall and the parking situation generally.
They will also decide whether to continue to operate Beech Close and Chorley Hall Lane as allotment sites with priority restricted to Council Taxpayers of the Alderley Edge Parish Precept and tenancies restricted to one per registered address.
A second motion proposes to that the Parish Council enter into discussions with Alderley Edge School for Girls, who own the site at Lydiat Lane where they wish to establish a new allotment site, and honours the current season tenancies until the end of September 2013, subject to the payment of pro-rata fees to the Parish Council.
Last month the Parish Council wrote to existing tenants and those on the waiting list to ask whether they wished to continue as either a tenant or a waiting list applicant and whether they would support a new site at Lydiat Lane.
At Monday's meeting, councillors will decide whether to establish a new list of tenants and a new waiting list and confirm the cut-off date for responses from their letter, likely to be 18th March.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the Alderley Edge Parish Council meeting which will be held upstairs at the Festival Hall on Monday, 11th March, starting at 7.30pm.
Other local issues to be discussed include a letter from Cheshire East regarding CCTV and there will be an update from the Festival Hall management working party.
There will be a period of not more than twenty minutes towards the beginning of the meeting for the public to ask questions or submit comments.
The full agenda for the Parish Council Meeting is available here.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
The Parish Council actions of the past month, based on its assertion that it holds responsiblity, are therefore invalid.
When are the councillors going to accept the need to follow due process - including leases and tenancy agreements - and act within the law in pursuit of its plans for the community?
how does one go about ousting an entire parish council for misleading the residents of the village they try to ride rough shod over?
The allotment in question is not a beautiful green space in the heart of the village (thats the park), it's an eyesore for anyone coming into the village from that end.
The current Festival Hall car park will not be big enough when an event is taking place in the new hall and the Doctors is in use at the same time - is does not take a degree in maths to work that out.
Rant over.
We may have too many supermarkets , banks and restaurants but that is no excuse for tarmacing over what you term an "eyesore" but most would see as a beautiful green space , just to create an overspill car park for when flautists and medics decide to perform contemporaneously.
Frankly some of the people attending the medical practice could maybe do
with a good walk by parking a short distance away.More walking, less need for
docs.
1. It was C.E's decision to give over the allotments to the parish council.
2. On all the allotment sites there are people who have 3 or even 4 plots for themselves, despite there being a waiting list! Is that an allotment or a market garden? Is it selfish?
3. A significant number of allotment holders do not live in Alderley Edge.
4. There are bye-laws governing the allotments, from way back. One of them (I am told) is that allotment holders must live within 1 mile of the allotment site... oops!
5. If enough parking is not provided for the new medical centre, will there be lots of complaints that the parish council failed to provide enough parking?
By the way, if the P.C.T. don't get their act together and hand over the £500,000 which they are supposed to cough up, towards the cost of the new medical centre, you may not get a new medical centre; no its not the parish council that's delaying the hand-over of money, its the disorganised (no, I mustn't use the word I was thinking of!) at the P.C.T.
at the public meeting about the medical centre I asked the people from the nhs/pct and a parish councillor as well as someone from the medical practice if this plan would need the allotments to be used as car parking all assured me no it will not . so who is telling the truth? as for trying to mud sling about 3-4 plots yes I have a plot my wife has a plot and our son has a plot .if you must know why as you obviously know nothing about the running of the sites ,it is because in the past people were offered them and others and no one would take them on as they were wilderness neglected for years .these have been brought back to cultivation through a lot of hard work and toil. as for commercial growing that is against the old regulations as laid down by the council and in current climate you'd need acres not a plot or 2 .
recently when I asked about parish councillors and if they lived in the parish you assured me they did ....... why does a.e.p.c website give Cllr josephs address as monk heath or when did we stretch the parish boundary?
So in the interest of clarifying the facts:
The PCT contacted alderleyedge.com in January 2012 following the public consultation at the Festival Hall as they wanted to stress that their project to build a new medical centre has nothing to do with plans to turn Heyes Lane allotments into a car park and specifically requested that we published this on alderleyedge.com.
Nicola Kent, Primary Care Projects Manager at Central & Eastern Cheshire PCT said "We have 33 car parking spaces within this existing scheme, we currently have 6 spaces at George Street, which are mainly used by the doctors, so 33 is fab - it is such an improvement for us. We don't need any additional parking and have not asked for any."
Please refer to the article 'Medical centre plans 'entirely separate' from allotment plans' published 31st January 2012 at http://bit.ly/Yfropr
Given the current parking at the Festival Hall is vastly under-utilised at a point in time when parking in the village is close to breaking point I personally fail to see how a new car park at the allotment site will benefit the village.
Perhaps the Parish Council should at least try and put additional signage in place to try and get the Festival Hall car park actually used to its full potential before expanding it???
Why?
Im going to hazard a guess its one mans obsession with closing Heyes Lane allotments come what may however on Monday we will get the chance to see how all the Parish Councillors vote on this matter. i hope none of them duck the issue.
The Parish Council has not responded on this link to rebut my statement that the transfer of the allotments has not taken place. Does it now accept that is the case?
The lease for the transfer contains a clause which states clearly that the allotments MUST REMAIN AS ALLOTMENTS. If the Parish Council accepts the transfer then it does so with this condition in place. And yet it is clear its recent actions show that it has no intention of keeping to this part of the lease. It is difficult to see how anyone can trust a Parish Council which makes legal promises it has no intention of keeping.
The P.C. have, in the recent past, been 'accused' of having a master plan; I wish! Mostly I just respond (as best I may) to constantly changing circumstances. Niccola Kent is pleased that there are 33 parking spaces in the plan (a plan agreed between doctors and builder and P.C.T. (with only a little input from the P.C.) BUT I believe that there are to be designated parking spaces for doctors, nurses and possibly other employees of the medical practice...so there won't be 33 spaces for the public. If enough spaces are not provided for the public, then life for the people living around the Hall/Medical centre will be awful? We do try to plan ahead; it is very likely that the Medical Centre will grow quite considerably over the next few years; so do we come back then and start to look for more parking? and be accused of not planning?
To answer Mike's point about where P.Councillors live...my memory is not exact on this but I recall that the 'rules' say that a P.Councillor has to live within 2.5 miles and Councillor Joseph does.
Martin, I agree that the present parking at the F. Hall is under-utilised; if people won't walk from the Hall into the village, so be it BUT if as we anticipate (best guess) much more parking will be involved when the Medical Centre opens, then hopefully there won't be under-utilisation.
Mike; you are right to say that I do not know about running allotment sites (never said I did)... (here comes a learning curve)...but given that there is a waiting list for allotments of 29 people (all residents of A.E. I am told) and 3 vacant lots (not at Hayes Lane) and 8 people with more than 1 plot (I am told) then it might seem that Cheshire East also don't know much about running allotments?
Perhaps putting the figures into the public domain will help...these figures are taken from C.E. list (I have not read the document myself, so this is hearsay BUT I believe them to be accurate).
There are 16 plots at Hayes Lane...(6 have 1 user/occupant...20 are halved)...3 people have more than a single plot... that comes to 26 actual occupants; 14 live in A.E. and 12 do not. I offer these figures without comment.
Mike... I haven't accused you of commercial growing... so that's a red herring! The 'Old Regulations' may indeed forbid commercial growing (I'm happy to take your word for that) but my own opinion is that anyone who either 'gifts' or makes a few bob from excess produce is fine by me (but the rules are the rules I guess).
Mike... maybe you were told, 'back in the day', that Hayes Lane would not be needed for parking...that does not mean that you were lied to, just that circumstances/views change... I was once doubtful about turning Hayes Lane allotments into approach road/parking, but I've since 'come round' to being for the proposal... equally I was always against having a garage on the site and I still am. These are simply my views and you don't agree with them. Again I was in favour of demolishing the entire Hall and building a combined Hall and Medical Centre; my colleagues did not agree with me and I had to accept the majority view!
More seriously; if the P.C.T. doesn't get its act together and get the £500,000 handed over by March 31st there may be a danger that the money will be 'lost'.
I do not know whether the hand-over of the allotments is finalised; probably find out on Monday at the P.C. monthly meeting... but how does that affect the discussion? either it has been finalised or it shortly will be? Or are you hoping for a last-minute change of heart by Cheshire East?
You are right about the clause in the lease for transfer (as far as I know) but once lawyers are involved, who knows? When one signs a lease there are (I have found in the past) often clauses that one doesn't like and one is free to try and have them altered? A lease is just an agreement, not something set in concrete... and that's just me 'speaking' not the P.C.
The Standard Lease to transfer Allotments to Town and Parish states that the Allotment sites will remain Allotment sites. However, there is nothing to stop the Parish Council transferring Allotments from one location to another. That requires the consent of the Secretary of State for Local Government, which the Parish Council will seek.
In that request, the Parish Council will offer a separate site, and will demonstrate to the Minister that more than 75% of the existing Allotment Tenants can remain in place, ie on CHL and BC.
When you state that the Allotments have not been transferred, that was effectively done in June 2012. You know that Legal Advice had been taken as to whether, under the Localism Act, the Allotments could be transferred to the Allotment Society, and the Cabinet Member decision, considered and discounted that suggestion.
I know the Allotments Society harbour a lingering hope that, even at this late hour, the decision could be changed. The Chairman of the Allotments Society said exactly that at the February Parish Council meeting, but I reported that the Leases had been signed by both parties.
The matter of parking at the Medical Centre was considered at the Planning Application, and, as you rightly say, Cheshire East had no concerns about the Medical Centre.
Festival Hall has 53 parking spaces, and the re-arranged site will have 33 spaces with dedicated spaces for the Medical Centre. The Medical Centre is fine, the threat is to the Hall; many functions at night spill over into side streets, and a loss of 20 spaces will add further pressure, even causing a reduction in bookings, which will threaten the future of the Hall. During the day, when the Medical Centre occupies most of the 33 spaces, the Hall will struggle to attract income.
The Parish Council will be trying to persuade the Minister that a Community Hall will be worth a great deal more under the Localism Act than the discomfort caused to a few Allotment Tenants, especially considering that a waiting list of 29 could be accommodated at one fell swoop under the Parish Council proposals.
How do you know that there are 29 people on the waiting list, at the meeting it was stated that the voting form sent to some allotment holders not all and those on waiting list was to try to ascertain how many actually are tenants and how many still on the waiting list. Although the voting form was somewhat a fait accompli if sent in.
I know because Cheshire East provided the information of Allotment plots and Waiting list.
The letters sent out to everyone on the lists provided and were to ascertain : if you are a tenant, do you want to continue. And, if you are on the waiting list, do you still want to be on the waiting list.
We also included a question, would you support the provision of more allotments at Lydiat Lane.
No one on the lists was missed out. It may be the lists were wrong, but it is all we had.
Some people are replying that they don't live at that address any longer, and they don't have the allotment. Some are replying that they do live at the address, but they don't now have the allotment.