The car park at the Festival Hall has recently been changed from a pay and display to a permit holders only car park.
Cheshire East Council (CEC) had been leasing the car park off Alderley Edge Parish Council but the lease was recently terminated so CEC is no longer operating or controlling the car park.
As a result they removed the ticket machine and signs have recently been erected warning motorists that the car park is private property, for the use of permit holders only and any unauthorised vehicles or vehicles incorrectly parked will be issued with a parking charge notice for £85.
A number of people who work in the village and visitors have contacted us about this change, to complain that it leaves very few options for long term parking in the village.
Kath Alsop, a visitor from Ashbourne, told alderleyedge.com "I visit Alderley Edge on a regular basis to get together with my niece for lunch and some pampering. We have always parked at the Festival Hall but this last week I was told from now on it will be permit holders only.
"In two years of visiting Alderley Edge I have always failed to park at the South Street car park, even at 8.50 am, Waitrose is another option but that is also limited to 2 hours and is full of litter and dog excrement - sometimes contained in bags but not always.
"Most of the street parking is limited to 1 hour or 2 hours which doesn't leave time for a relaxing treatment and lunch."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
For years it has been said by the Parish Councillors that the Festival Hall car park was the solution for parking if only you could get people to park there - now there is no short term parking there.
I will be interested to see how much the charges raise each year to see whether we are getting a good return on making the short term parkers park on the street. I will also be curious to see how many spaces there are and how many permits are sold.
Why don't the Parish Council just make it free - now that would be a great public service !
The central (lit and safe) car park is full by 9am, where do the remainder of the village workers park? Obviously they want to make some money - so are not going to park in a 1 hour bay which could result in a daily £30 fine (nearly a days wage for some) or constant disruption of the working day moving the car around the village- so they will now have to park outside residents drives, illegally or obstructively, these will be the only options available to someone who wants to earn a living! A suitable solution needs to be reached soon, otherwise it risks upsetting local residents even more and could even affect local businesses if staff are unable to get to work or no longer find working in the village viable due to parking charges.
I am glad that you spoke out for the workers who needs parking to work at this village.
I don't think anyone has actually investigated the real number of parking space needed for people working here at the village.
If you add up all the staff at all the shops, schools, bars, restaurants, offices, etc. I won't be surprised to see the figure to be in the hundreds.
So far we keep seeing the parking issue being pushed from one street to another. The situation is getting to breaking point and now with the parking being so bad around Ryleys Lane and the schools, I won't be surprised to find one of our school children will get seriously hurt.
I think the businesses in the village need to come together and publish the 'actual' number of parking needed for their staff here in the forum. With this information, we can justify to the council why we need 'affordable' long term parking for the workers.
This should be an indication that the people that are parking all over the village (quite legally)and walking fair distances to work do so because they do not want to pay to park all day.Fair comment if you work 8hours a day in Alderley and have to pay 1/1.5 hrs wages to park.
Now to compound the problem AEPC have now let out the car park for private parking.
Question.1. Where do all the people who use the hall park now?
2. Where do all the people who park there everyday go now?
3. Do all AEP Councillors have free parking badges?
4. What happens when building work starts,are H&S going to allow the car park to remain open?
5. ??? I'll think of summat!!
2. Under the old system i.e. when Cheshire East 'owned' the Hall parking area, there was a mix of Permits and 'open' parking for the general public; some of the empty spaces were where Permit holders were not using their permit at a particular time.
3. Now the system has changed i.e. many more permits have been issued, on behalf of the Parish Council; there are 51 spaces and 44 Permits have been issued.
4. The notices put up seem to imply that if you park at the Hall and are not a permit holder, you may be fined £85.00.
So whose idea was all this? Who caused this to happen?
The Chairman (Councillor Lloyd) and Vice-Chairman (that's me) and three other P.C. Councillors (Schofield, Joseph & Connor) have not been involved/consulted/briefed. Councillor Bergin is living (with his family) and working in Africa and so probably isn't involved.
Up to you to ask others (they are your Councillors after all) whether they were or were not involved.
The next P.C. meeting is next Monday; come along and ask as many questions as you wish.
If you are seriously advising us that somebody in AEPC was able to make a change on how revenue is generated to a council asset without any consultation then it really is time for us to start asking some serious questions on how this council conducts itself. I assume the company listed on the newly erected notices are the same company who previously enforced on behalf of CEC? If not why was this company chosen and what was the tendering process, or are you going to advise that the majority of the council who are elected by us knew nothing of this either?
Your comment encouraging us to ask questions astounds me, we elect the council to do a number of duties on our behalf, one of which is as custodian of the council assets, and if the Chair and Deputy Chair do not know what’s going on with these assets I expect them to act and ask the questions and not simply encourage the residents to do so.
I for one will certainly be at the meeting on Monday, not to ask why there has been a change in parking use, but to ask who did it and why does this person have the authority to make these decisions without anybody else within AEPC having to be consulted. This really is no way for our elected representatives to conduct themselves, its 2014 and we expect firstly that those senior councillors i.e. the Chair and Deputy know what’s going on and that our councillors live in the area or at the very least in this country!
Are you saying that 6 of the 9 councillors have no knowledge of this change? That only leaves Frank, Mary and Mike who might have had something to do with it.
How can that be democratic?
I am assuming this was not done by CEC as their lease has expired.
To ensure that the car park is not full of people parking for free we, the Parish Council, have introduced, in the short term, a parking regime of 100% permit parking. This allows us control of the hall's car park which is required when events are taking place (for example, it is difficult to hire out the hall for a Friday wedding reception if guests cannot park there because the car park is full of people parking for fee).
In addition, the revenue already generated by the permits has already allowed us to begin maintenance of the car park, e.g. we have begun a programme of filling in a number of the pot holes in the car park.
The Parish Council took control of the Festival Hall in 2009 and part of that deal allowed Cheshire East the ability to enforce Parking Orders at Festival Hall, but the proviso was that AEPC could give 3 months notice to quit because we envisaged the need to develop the Hall and Medical Centre. Recently Cheshire East had to amend the Parking Orders and took the opportunity to amend the order at FH, knowing that we were near to starting the work on the MEDCEN.
The Chairman of the Council was very much in the loop about the withdrawal of CEC from the car park, and approved the signs which were erected. The Deputy Chairman was advised by the Hall Manager, and the rest of the Parish Council were advised on quite a few occasions that it was happening. Sometimes in public meeting, and sometimes in private briefings.
But I agree with your underlying question: Why would anyone like to portray their ignorance of the basic facts, and why would they pretend not to have been told?
2. The Chairman emailed me at April 2nd to say that he also knew nothing of all this.
3. I repeat that, to the best of my knowledge, the majority of the A/E Parish Councillors were not told of the changes before they occured.
Over to you citizens.
I am not surprised to learn that other members of the council were not given "the nod."
Frank (it seems to me) is on a magic carpet ride sponsored by Emerson Developments - all in my honest opinion.
Over the last week alone I have only ever seen the FH car park half full even when the event was on this weekend whilst out in the local streets we have mayhem - with cars trying to park in all available spaces - parking signs that now lead to what is now a private car park!
Being the Easter holiday period what will it be like when everyone goes back to work?
Think also of the effect and impact on local residents, retailers and people who work in Alderley. You must obviously consider out of town visitors who can easily give up looking for a parking space an look to Wilmslow as an easy alternative.
So I suggest that AEPC stops bickering, works together in an open and with constructive dialog to resolve this issue.
If you can substantiate your allegations, inform the Police. If you cannot, and you know you cannot, then withdraw them immediately or face the consequences