Annual Parish Meeting

Tuesday 3rd May 2011

THE CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

Welcome to the Annual Parish meeting for 2011 and thank you for coming.

Apologies from Parish Cllr Jennie Davis.

I must start my report this year with the sad news of the death, after a long illness, of former Cllr Alan Troughton. Alan was a councillor for some 40 years and a formidable presence on the Parish Council. We extend our condolences to Alan’s wife Elma and their family.

During 2010 the consequences of the creation of the new unitary authority, Cheshire East Council, have continued to take centre stage in your Parish Council’s deliberations. Tonight we wish to share with you some of the key decisions that now fall to the Parish Council as a result of decisions taken by Cheshire East and we have a short presentation to illustrate the issues at stake. Before moving on to this I should like to spend a little time reviewing some other highlights of the past year.

Post Office

You will no doubt recall that it was this time almost exactly last year that we learnt of the sudden and unexpected closure of the Post Office. The Parish Council immediately established contacts with the relevant executives at Post Office Limited to urge an early re-establishment of Post office service to the village on an a sustainable basis. It soon became apparent that the Post office was determined to use the break in service provided by the failure of the old Post Office business as a pretext for replacing it (if at all) with a very much reduced service and at terms which provided little more than a token return and very little security. It was clear that the revised offer by the Post Office was not attractive to any of the existing businesses in the village.

We came to the view that the Co-op shop remained the only likely commercial route to the re-establishment of a Post Office service and our MP, David Rutley, who has supported us throughout, established high level contacts with both Post Office and Co-op managements from whom it was learnt that discussions were under way between the two organizations about the possibility of running Post Office Essentials services at rural Co-op stores. In this particular case the wheels of commerce seemed to run exceptionally slowly but a few weeks ago David did receive word that agreement has been reached to “pilot” such an initiative at two Co-op stores in Yorkshire. What, if anything, this may mean in the long run for Prestbury it is too early to say but the search for a resumption of Post Office services has not been abandoned.

Police

Those who attended last year’s meeting will recall an excellent presentation by PCSO Lisa Cash and her colleagues and the subsequent discussion about whether the parish should appoint a dedicated PCSO at a cost to the parish precept of some £11000 per annum. Although there was a broad (although not unanimous) consensus that this would be worth doing, the Parish Council nevertheless decided not to take this step. We felt that, on balance, the levels of criminal activity of the kind that a PCSO could directly affect in Prestbury did not justify such an expense – particularly in the light of other impending cost pressures that we could see coming. We have, in fact, been able to continue to retain a good deal of PCSO Cash’s time under the existing centrally funded Police scheme and, for the time being at least, we are comfortable with this arrangement.

Plan for Prestbury

The Parish Council continues to work on and monitor projects that stemmed from the Plan for Prestbury and I would like to touch on a few of these.

Communications
One of the main issues to emerge from P4P was improved communications. Although the project teams and the council have put direct effort into this area, I am pleased to reflect that the “market” itself has in fact responded extremely positively in the past year or so to deliver marked improvements in communications channels available to the community. The regular monthly magazine, Prestbury Living, frankly disappointed many of us on its initial launch with much glossy lifestyle content but precious little of real community relevance. A year or so ago, Prestbury Living was relaunched under its current editor, Barry Hook, and now makes a real effort to cover local news stories and features. In a parallel development in electronic media, prestbury.com has been launched and its energetic editor, Lisa Reeves, is providing extensive and up-to-the-minute coverage of village news and event. I commend both of these publications to you – especially those of you involved in running clubs and societies. They are a real asset to us as a community.

Community Facilities
The team looking at the provision of a new community centre has made significant progress over the last year in scoping a potential facility and producing architectural plans. Both the tennis and squash clubs are now actively involved along with representatives of many other clubs and organizations that would be potential users of the facility. This is potentially a most exciting project but one that would present an enormous challenge to the community not least in raising very significant funds. The project team is now concentrating on cementing the kind of wide-ranging and sustainable community support that will be necessary to take the project to the next step of formal planning consent.

Supplementary Planning Document
After much coming and going and as a result of tenacious work in particular by Cllr Lillian Burns, I can report that we now have an agreed Supplementary Planning Document ready for formal sign off. The document incorporates a number of the planning issues and concerns raised by the Plan for Prestbury and I quote from the preamble to the planning document:

The purpose of this document is to provide a link between the objectives of the Parish Plan produced by the parish residents in January 2009 and the formal planning policies contained within the Macclesfield Borough Local Plan and through this provide supplementary information which can, where appropriate assist with considering future planning application proposals.

The Prestbury Parish Plan also forms part of the Evidence Base for the Cheshire East Local Development Framework. The Supplementary Planning Document and associated policies within the adopted 2004 Macclesfield Borough Local Plan will be in place until such time as they are reviewed by Cheshire East Council in conjunction with Prestbury Parish Council following adoption of the Local Development Framework for Cheshire East.”

Parrotts Field
The wish to see more accessible open space in the centre of the village has finally resulted in the provision of an access gate, footpath and benches in Parrotts Field. As chance would have it, this work was finally completed in the middle of last winter – not the most advantageous timing to encourage usage. Now that the better weather and longer days are with us, we hope that residents will enjoy the opportunity to stroll quietly into this particularly attractive area of public space at the heart of our village. As an informal marking the opening up of Parrotts Field a display of old photographs of Prestbury will be held there over the Spring Bank Holiday at the end of this month.
Bollin Valley projects
A successful effort to limit the growth of Himalayan Balsam along parts of the Bollin Valley footpath was undertaken last June by a group of stalwart volunteers. We intend to repeat this exercise this summer over the weekend of 25/26 June. We hope that an enlarged band of volunteers will enable greater inroads to be made into this rampant invader.
Further initiatives to make improvements to parts of the Bollin Valley Way to enable joint use walking/cycling paths remain on the table but are still frustrated by difficulties in establishing the necessary dialogue with the landowner.
Traffic & Transportation
Finally, we continue to try to address the many concerns that arose in his area. Work is progressing to establish a more formal arrangement with Northern Rail to enable a volunteer effort under a scheme known as Adopt-a-station to take a proactive role in the ongoing maintenance and improvement of the station environment.

Tackling the perennial problem of excess speed through the village will continue to challenge us as a Parish Council and as a community. Over the course of the past year, our Police support has run a number of driver engagement days to improve local road safety awareness and reduce speeding. We are continuing to negotiate with the Police and Highway Authorities to try to secure further speed warning devices such as that on New Road.

Speaking of New Road, regular attenders at these meetings will know that I have had occasion to refer each year to the ongoing saga of New Road lights. This year is no exception but the news this time is positive. The latest set of more robust lights has now survived unmolested by vandals for several months, I don’t wish to tempt fate but let us hope that a long-term solution has now finally been found.

Finally, I must make mention of the highly successful Christmas Street Party last December. The response to this exceeded our wildest expectations and the day will long remain in the memory of many of us as a real triumph for community enterprise and togetherness. My thanks to all who helped make it such a success. The Parish Council is already working on 2011’s event!

Before concluding, there are some changes to the make-up of the Parish Council as it approaches its new working year. Cllr Norman Ridley is standing down after nearly 40 years service to the council. As well as a spell as chairman Norman has ranged across all areas of the council’s work and has always maintained special interest in the maintenance and improvement of our footpath network. Cllr Christine Musgrove who has been Vice chair of both the council and the Planning Committee for the past few years is also standing down, as am I. I am pleased to welcome Cllrs Yvonne Dodd and Thelma Jackson who join the council.


Before we move on to address the issue of transfer of services, I shall be happy to take questions on any matter that I have referred to.

FINANCE REPORT

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 2010/2011 was £38,481 and remains the same for 2011/2012

The Parish Council Accounts are now going through the first stage of the Government Statutory Audit Procedure.

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



TRANSFER OF ASSETS/SERVICES TO PRESTBURY

Prestbury Parish Council would like to gauge residents’ opinion before making any decisions about important changes being proposed by Cheshire East Council that will affect Prestbury residents.
Town and parish councils are being encouraged to take on the ownership of and responsibility for various local authority assets and services. Cheshire East ‘s budget for 2011-12 shows a cut in expenditure of £4.8m and there is growing pressure to either cease the provision of ‘non-statutory’ services or to transfer them to Town and Parish Councils. If local residents wish to see these non-statutory services maintained by the Parish Council then funding them will require an increase in the precept (Council Tax portion allocated to the Parish Council).
Two types of assets and services are under discussion: those that CEC has a statutory duty to provide e.g. litter picking, road sweeping and grass cutting of verges, which could be ‘devolved’ to the Parish Council and funded by Cheshire East and non-statutory duties that CEC is not obliged to provide. These include Christmas trees and decorations, public toilets, hanging baskets, flower tubs and beds, bus shelters, street name plates, ownership and maintenance of the football pitch, benches, children’s play area. Some of the non-statutory services may no longer be provided or, if residents wish to maintain some or all of the non-statutory services, an increase in the Parish Council precept will be necessary.
Cheshire East proposes that the transfer / devolution of assets and services will take effect from April 2012, the start of the next financial year. Prestbury Parish Council is yet to recommend a position either way as local residents need to be consulted and more information is needed. The Parish Council hopes to be in a position to recommend a way forward after the Annual Parish Meeting (see below) with the final decision being taken with Cheshire East in the summer.

PLANNING 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 Cheshire East Council for our area are considered by the Committee. During the last 12 months we have considered some 83 planning applications an increase of 6 applications compared to 2010. Again the majority has been for extensions and conservatories to existing properties, but 11 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 Cheshire East Council takes note of our opinion but the final decision is always theirs.

The Supplementary Planning Document continues to be developed in conjunction with East Cheshire Council and should prove to be a useful tool to all people involved in the planning process.

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.