Annual Parish Meeting

Wednesday, 30th April 2008

THE CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

I should like to start my report by welcoming our one new face since last year; our Clerk Georgina Ryder. Georgina replaced Kathy Williams in August of last year after several years working for the magistracy so she is well qualified to keep a bunch of awkward councillors in line. We are delighted to have her with us.

Your Parish Council’s activities in 2007 have been dominated by two main issues – the Parish Plan (Plan for Prestbury) and the closure and intended sale of Ford House. Those of you who attended last year’s Annual Parish meeting will recall that we launched the Parish Plan at that meeting; much exciting progress has been made since then and we shall hear more about this later in the evening. For now, therefore, let me concentrate on the issue of Ford House.

Since the Parochial Church Council announced in May of 2007 the immediate closure of Ford House on safety grounds the Parish Council has held several meetings with the Vicar and members of the PCC. We have also written to the church authorities within Prestbury and also to the Bishop of Chester and the Archdeacon of Macclesfield to express the deeply felt concerns of many parishioners about the loss of this valuable village resource.

We initially set out our concerns in a letter to the Vicar in which we urged him to engage in the fullest and possible consultation on his plans.
The Plan for Prestbury survey of parishioners’ views that, fortuitously, went out in October 2007 confirmed many of these worries and provided considerable objective weight to the arguments we had been putting forward. In early December therefore we wrote to again to the PCC setting out our concerns in more detail and drawing on the evidence that was now available from The Plan for Prestbury questionnaire. This confirmed that there was considerable concern about the closure of Ford House, the loss of community facilities, including centrally located church parking spaces as well as overwhelming concern about the impact of the redevelopment of this sensitive site on the historic centre of the village. Similarly, widespread concern was expressed about the idea of extensions to the church.

We asked the PCC to delay any disposal of the Ford House site for six months to enable the Plan for Prestbury group to carry out its review of the needs of the village for community facilities into the future and the options for providing these. The PCC replied that they believed that they had no alternative but to sell Ford House and to use the funds raised to finance an extension of St Peter’s and early in the New Year the sale process was put in train.

The Council followed up our letter to the PCC by writing to the Bishop of Chester. In that letter we said:

“We would wish to emphasise that the position of the Parish Council is not one of outright opposition to any change and we fully recognise that the PCC faces serious problems with the condition of Ford House; nor do we underestimate the potential scale of the costs that might be involved in delivering a solution that retains Ford House in some form or other as a community facility. We do, however, strongly believe that an opportunity now exists, through the mechanism of the parish plan process, to undertake jointly with the church authorities an open and comprehensive review of options. “

This remains the position of the Parish Council. It is our duty to try to reflect the interests of the whole community. This is never easy, especially on such a sensitive issue upon which views can become polarised. However, we do feel that the information you have given us through the Plan for Prestbury survey provides evidence of widespread concern and this was further reinforced by the numbers who turned out to the open meeting at The Bridge Hotel in February – and indeed at the Extraordinary Parochial Meeting in the church on 7th April.

The Parish Council has consistently tried to articulate what we believe are the views of a wide cross-section of the community while recognising both that the PCC faces real problems with Ford House and that responsibility for resolving these lies with them. We do not subscribe to the view that Ford House must be “saved” at all costs and it would be irresponsible for your elected Council to sponsor what could become an expensive white elephant for future generations. We do believe, though, that the Ford House site occupies a unique location at the heart of our village. It may represent our best option to provide a range of high quality facilities that can be used by the whole community for generations to come – or it may not. Unless we can sit down with the PCC in a joint exploration of the possibilities we will never know.

As many of you will know, the church authorities convened an Extraordinary Parochial Meeting in the church on 14th April at which a motion that the PCC should withdraw immediately from the sale of Ford house was narrowly carried (106 votes to 102). We now wait to know how the PCC will respond to this and other representations that have been made to them.

One or two other matters of note deserve mention before I conclude. I am delighted to record that Prestbury took first place in its class in the Community Pride competition – for the second year running. Thanks and congratulations are due in particular to Councillor Jimmy Jackson and the Amenity Society for their hard work and dedication in achieving this remarkable double. At last year’s meeting I reported upon the sorry saga of the New Road lights which suffered extensive damage from vandals shortly after being commissioned. In conjunction with the Borough Council we have been trying to find a set of new lights that will both be more robust against wanton damage whilst providing light at ground level which will be of assistance to pedestrians without creating glare for motorists or local residents. A new fitting has been installed and whilst this too has been subject to some unwanted attention, we now expect to see the entire string of lights replaced within the next few weeks. The police have been asked to be particularly vigilant against any further attacks by vandals. Other notable projects carried out in the last year include replacement and refurbishment of a further section of Cheshire Railings at the end of Bonis Hall Lane, installation of 15 new kissing gates on footpaths within the parish and the production of a brand new footpaths map which will shortly be available. We shall also very shortly be issuing an updated edition of the Parish Directory.

I must end, with regret, by announcing that Councillor Alan Troughton has been forced by ill-health to resign from the council. Alan joined the Parish Council in 1968. During his time on the council he was fully involved in its activities and served as Chairman from 1972 -74 and also later was for some time Chairman of the Planning Committee. Two notable campaigns he was involved in were those to get a 30 mph speed limit throughout the parish which took several years to achieve, and to get a mini roundabout at the end of the village street at the junction with Macclesfield Road. Many parishioners may remember the enormous back-up of traffic on Macclesfield Road trying to get through the village before the roundabout was installed. Alan’s enthusiasm and incisive analysis will be greatly missed and we wish him a speedy return to better health. As a result of Cllr Troughton’s resignation this there is now a vacancy on the council and we should be very pleased to hear from anyone who may be interested in joining us. Please have a word with me, with the Clerk, Georgina, or any councillor.

PLANNING COMMITTEE REPORT

The Parish Council Planning Committee continues to take its duties very seriously in an attempt to ensure that The Village maintains its character and charm. To fulfil this aim all planning applications submitted to Macclesfield Borough Council for our area are considered by the Committee. During the last 12 months we have considered some 174 planning applications an increase of 14 applications compared to 2007. Again the majority has been for extensions and conservatories to existing properties, but 27 have been for replacement buildings.

The meetings of the Planning Committee take place every 3 weeks on Wednesday mornings,
Date, Time and Agendas are published on the main notice board in the Village, all are welcome to attend. All Plans are available for inspection by the Public every Friday from 10-30 a.m. to 1-00 p.m. and 2-00 p.m. to 4-30 p.m. at The Village Library.
N.B The Parish Council Planning Committee is a “Statutory Consultee” in the planning system. Therefore the Borough Council takes note of our opinion but the final decision is always theirs.

Both the Parish and the Borough Councils are very strongly opposed to any encroachment in to the Green Belt for whatever purpose, be it new development or annexation by Green Belt neighbours.

The Village Design Statement has now been approved, 9even if it is in a much watered down form), and should prove a useful tool giving Supplementary Planning Guidance.

Finally after another year we the Planning Committee of the Parish Council hoped to have looked after your interests to the best of our ability and in as professional way possible.


Donald Foden
Chairman ~ Planning Committee.

THE REPORT FROM THE FINANCE AND GENERAL PURPOSE COMMITTEE

The Finance and General Purpose Committee have critically reviewed all aspects of the Council’s expenditure to ensure that general running costs are minimised and all project work is supported wherever possible with grant funding.

A detailed budget is prepared showing expected income and expenditure and a comparison made twice yearly with regular meetings between the Chairman of F and GP, Vice Chairman and The Responsible Financial Officer.

The F & GP advises the Council on the annual precept it needs to levy within the Council Tax to fund its activities. The precept for 2007-2008 was £36,767 whilst for 2008/2009 the total precept required is £37,539 which is an increase of 2%.

A new area of Cheshire Railings has been refurbished and some replaced at the Bonis Hall Lane junction
A new traffic mirror has been placed on Castle Hill.
Fifteen new kissing gates have been placed on various footpaths within the village.
The Prestbury Directory is in the process of been produced again.
Map of all footpaths in Prestbury
Upgrade of children’s roundabout in children’s play area.
Replacement of Xmas lights.

The Parish Council Accounts are now going through the first stage of the Government Statutory Audit Procedure. The Accounts are subject to viewing by the general public on 25th May to 28th June after which they will be sent to Hacker Young Accountants, Chester who are commissioned by the Government to act as their External Auditor.

Any person wishing to view the accounts may do so by contacting the Clerk who is the Responsible Financial Officer on 01625 260362 or email: parish.clerk@ntlworld.com







Georgina Ryder
Clerk to Prestbury Parish Council
Responsible Financial Officer