Alan Clarke.

Chair of Nether Alderley Parish Council.

Annual Report 2014-2015

As Chair of the Parish Council over the last 12 months since our last Annual General Meeting, I will attempt to summarize the highlights of what has been a very busy year for the Council and the Parish.

As I mentioned in my report last year, following the publication of the Parish Plan, three working groups were set up. They have continued to work tirelessly for the benefit of the Parish, and have kept in contact with the Parish Council who take a very close interest in their work and assist where possible.

I would like to say to all those involved with these working groups a big thank you on behalf of the Parish Council and of all of the parishioners.

I will return later in my report to touch on some of the key initiatives of these working groups but I start with the most significant area of interest to the parishioners and to the Parish Council that has arisen during the year namely, the departure from Alderley Park of Astra Zeneca and the subsequent sale of the site to the consortium of partners led by Bruntwood Developments.

The Parish Council throughout the year have monitored closely the ever changing plans for the site and the subsequent publication of the framework document that is currently under final review by Cheshire East following the consultation period.

The Parish Council took and will continue to take careful consideration of the Parish Survey results following the opportunity to counsel opinions from the whole Parish.

On behalf of the Parish I would like to thank Peter Knowles for all his work in preparing and analysing the results of the survey.

The Parish Council arranged a very well attended open day when the plans were set out for the site and a subsequent open evening when Councillor Michael Jones, the leader of Cheshire East, fulfilled his promise to attend and answer the many questions raised by concerned parishioners.

With outline plans due to be developed during the summer of this year your Parish Council will continue to liaise with the consortium of others and monitor any plans particularly in relation to encroachment on the Green Belt and any housing developments that may arise on the site.

The Parish Plan Working Group set up to monitor health and safety on our roads and pavements have had considerable success in improving signage and lighting in various areas of the Parish. The Group has worked to liaise with the Primary school and carried out a survey to assess parents’ experiences of highways and traffic locally and on the routes to school . The Group has worked hard to address the needs to improve safety and reduce speed on our local lanes. However there is still a lot of work to do and following the Parish Council sponsored speed survey there are serious concerns at the overall average speeds of cars passing through the village. Your Parish Council will continue to work tirelessly with this Group and on their own to reduce the likelihood of accidents by reducing speed throughout the Parish. I would like to thank Martyn Bale for all his work in leading this Group.

I must also mention the huge success of the pride of Nether Alderley Working Group who amongst a lot of work undertaken by this Group have succeeded in brightening our village with a substantial planting of daffodils the benefit of which has been seen to all of us in the Spring of this year. Many thanks indeed to all those in this Group.

I would also thank John Patterson and his team for the efforts of the working party progressing plans for the village centre. This team are also lobbying the new owners of Alderley Park to open foot paths etc to provide new access routes from The Mill to the Edge.

Moving onto a few statistics the Parish Council has held 21 meetings during the year at the Parish Hall and we have considered 46 planning applications. Councillors themselves have represented your Parish at various other working groups throughout Cheshire and I thank all of my Councillors for their efforts and time commitment to these various meetings.

One other area of significance has been the re opening of the Saddlebridge Unit and your Parish Council have monitored the plans and the reopening following the disturbances of over a year ago. We continue to liaise closely with the management of this unit to ensure where possible that there are no safety issues for our local residents.

We have been attending the various meetings on the core strategy for the new Cheshire East local plan and were ready to present our views at the public hearing. As you are no doubt aware the Public Hearing has been postponed and we await developments following comments from both the Inspector and the Cheshire East Council.

I am delighted to report that we are about to acquire for posterity the telephone kiosk situated near the school and we are taking soundings as to the future use and siting following our adoption.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our community police officers who regularly attend our parish council meetings and update us on various police concerns within our parish. I am pleased to report that although we must always remain vigilant we do appear to have a very low crime incident record in the Parish.

We continue to maintain and improve our parish web site and we have also agreed following the request from the Parish Plan Group to take over the mailing via e mail to various parishioners who wish to receive communications electronically.

I would like to thank the JMC for all their efforts in running and maintaining of the Parish Hall which continues to be of concern to the Parish Council and St Mary’s Church. The ongoing maintenance of this listed building is currently being considered and we hope that a structural survey for its future will be prepared.

The Parish Plan indicated the desire to have a centre for the Parish and appropriate facilities including a Parish Hall. We continue to look for ways of raising the considerable amount of money that is needed to maintain and repair this wonderful asset.

I would like to thank Councillor George Walton who attends nearly every single Parish Council meeting and for his significant help in taking on board issues raised in our Parish that need to be emphasised at Cheshire East. Without George’s help some of the successes we have had in reducing speed limits in the Parish etc would not have been achieved.

Finally I would like to thank all my Parish Councillors for the support they have given me and for all their hard work during the year.

I would like to mention in particular Sandra Reynolds, who has been a Councillor for 13 years and has decided to stand down at the election in May.

I would also like to welcome Sarah Shoreland who joins the Council during the last 12 months.

I myself have also decided to stand down after 3 years as Chairman and 13 years on the Council.

I wish everyone good luck for the new Council and in particular I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Parish Council and the parishioners to thank Penny Langham our Clerk for all her help and guidance to the Council throughout the last 12 months.

I know all of our Councillors know how lucky we are to have Penny as our Clerk but I would just like to bring this to the attention of the parishioners because without Penny’s help we would not be able to achieve and cover all the work that we do in the limited time we have available.

Penny a big thank you from everyone in Nether Alderley!!

Alan Clarke

Chairman Nether Alderley Parish Council, May 2012- May 2015