Plan for Prestbury Response

The following records the responses of the Parish Council to the reommendations of the Plan for Prestbury. It is the result of several hours of discussion in of the proposals presented to us in December 2008 and published in March 2009.

RESPONSE FROM PRESTBURY PARISH COUNCIL

TO PLAN FOR PRESTBURY PROPOSALS


Community Information

Recommendation: A Welcome Pack will be made available to all new residents through local estate agents.

The Parish Council fully supports this initiative and would like to thank those who have put in the effort to bring this about.

Recommendation: ‘Prestbury Living’ magazine will appear quarterly and be delivered free to every household.

The Parish Council fully supports this initiative and would like to thank the editor and others who have put in the effort to bring this about.

Recommendation: A village-wide web site will promote Prestbury, its events and its businesses.

The Parish Council fully supports this initiative and would like to thank those who have put in the effort to bring this about and we look forward to the launch of the web site later this year. The Parish Council recognises that there will be modest ongoing annual running costs for such an enterprise and the parish Council has agreed to meet these.

Recommendation: Various proposals are made to improve effectiveness of the village notice boards.

The Parish Council agrees that there is a need for some sprucing up of the notice boards and is drawing up a budget proposal to carry this out. The other proposals are also agreed. With regard to the establishment of a rota to maintain the Council notes that the WI has traditionally carried out this task in respect of the main village centre notice board most effectively and hope that they are willing to continue to do so. The Parish Councillors themselves are happy to undertake the responsibility to maintain the other notice boards. We have written to the school governors requesting that the notice board at the school be re-positioned outside the school gates.

In welcoming these various proposals to improve communications within the community, the Parish Council recognises that there will be a continuing need, over time, to provide some co-ordination to ensure that initiatives do not fall away and will nominate a focal point for Communications matters.








Community and Sports Facilities

Recommendations: Take forward the idea of constructing a new moderate sized multi-user community and sports facility in the Bollin grove area. Take forward an initiative to upgrade the playing field. Set up a working party to look at further opportunities that may arise from the possible acquisition of privately owned land adjacent to the existing Bollin Grove sports facilities.

The Council understands that a group of interested individuals stands ready to form a working group to pursue these matters and the Council is willing to help in any way we can to get such a group up and running, including nominating a Parish Councillor to the group if this is felt to be helpful. We should like to have input to the group’s terms of reference and should like to see its membership cast as wide as possible. Involvement of the Tennis and Squash Clubs and of the other groups that have expressed a particular interest in having a new facility would seem to us to be essential. We should also like to see the school involved.

The Plan for Prestbury rightly highlights concerns regarding car parking and traffic flows should a new facility be built in the Bollin Grove area. The Council would regard provision of appropriate and sympathetic car parking as a pre-requisite for any further development of the area.

With regard to proposed improvements to the playing field the Parish Council, as joint owners of the field (along with the principal authority), is willing to pursue ways in which this might be achieved. It should be appreciated, however, that any such plan must be built upon a satisfactory and permanent resolution of drainage problems for which we are ultimately dependent upon the utility company. Previous efforts by the Council to secure the co-operation of this body have not proved fruitful.

It seems hardly necessary for us to point out that these initiatives collectively amount to a significant and ambitious programme. We can see no obvious reason at this time for this effort to be diluted by hypothetical considerations with regard to possible further expansion of the area and encroachment further into the Green Belt.


Village Green and Events

Recommendation: Open up and improve Parrott’s Field to meet public demand for a village green in Prestbury

Although it should be noted that Parrott’s Field is not, and never has been, “closed” in any legal or official sense, it has - to all intents and purposes - not been regarded by most residents as being generally accessible to them. Certainly, in its present condition, it is far from a welcoming area. We believe it is inappropriate that this plot of land, strategically located at the heart of the village and designated for public use, should not be readily and clearly open for the use of residents. The Plan for Prestbury has presented a persuasive case that making the site more accessible would be widely welcomed by residents.

We also note that the owners of the land, Macclesfield Borough Council (MBC)*, have expressed a wish to see the site made more accessible and welcoming and have outlined a plan which accords closely with the proposals of the Plan for Prestbury. In addition, the Parish Council is mindful of concerns expressed by MBC* officers that such a plot of publicly owned land without any obvious public benefit could become a target for development, particularly as the government are pressing local authorities to provide as much housing as they can and the adopted Regional Spatial Strategy has no ceiling for housing provision.

The Parish Council notes that the area is designated on the current Local Plan as being primarily for residential purposes and believes that, despite the land having been donated as a public open space and it being within the Conservation Area, there is a real danger of it becoming a development target. Such a possibility must be regarded seriously and steps should be taken to safeguard against such an eventuality. This is an important green lung in the heart of the built-up area. It must be used for the purpose for which it was intended – as a community open space - and it must be seen to be used as such for its own protection.

For all of these reasons the Parish Council would support the early implementation of the MBC*’s proposals.

The Parish Council is aware of concerns expressed by local residents of Bridge Green and has received representations on their behalf from the Preserve Prestbury Action Group (PPAG). There are worries about possible noise, litter, nuisance, vandalism and threats to the natural environment. Both the Parish Council and the Borough Council are sympathetic to these sensitivities and wish to ensure that any changes to Parrott’s Field should explicitly address them. We believe that the limited proposals outlined by both Plan for Prestbury and MBC* do take these into account and they should ensure that the fears of some residents are not realised. Specifically, we note that alcohol and dogs would be banned from the area and that the only open gates would not permit access by motorised vehicles.

The undulating topography of the site would be retained, additional hedging has been offered to ensure or enhance privacy of residents and no equipment is to be introduced, other than benches and a footpath that would run well away from the rear gardens of the adjoining properties. In addition to these safeguards, the Parish Council would wish to explore practical options for the site to be locked at dusk if this were felt to be desirable and would ensure that a key remains in the possession of the Council so that the site could be secured at any time should problems develop.
In short, while the Council is firmly of the belief that these limited proposals to make Parrott’s Field more welcoming and accessible should work for the benefit of the wider community and without detriment to local residents, we would retain within the local community the ability to reverse the changes should they not work out.

We would wish to acknowledge an alternative proposal, put forward by the PPAG, to plant an additional hedge part way across the site to allow partial access while retaining a portion of the field, nearest to the houses, that would not be accessible. This idea was discussed by the Parish Council, representatives of the PPAG and the responsible officer of the Macclesfield Borough Council*, owners of the land, who indicated that it was the Borough Council’s wish to see the whole site made more accessible and that any division of the land along these lines would be therefore unacceptable to them.

Finally, and on a point of detail, the Parish Council is not greatly enamoured of the proposed designation ’The Green at Parrott’s Field’ and would prefer the simple and established ’Parrott’s Field’.

* From 1st April 2009 Macclefield Borough Council ceased to exist and its replacement the new Unitary Authority, Cheshire East, became the owner of the land.


Teenagers

Recommendation: Establish a Youth Forum, initiate monthly themed evenings, organise regular sports activities, disseminate information on Teenagers’ activities and explore the possibility of improved weekend public transport.

The Council fully supports the initiatives proposed to improve facilities and activities for the young people of the community. We wish those who intend to establish the Youth Form and other initiatives every success and are ready to help practically in any way we can. A Councillor will be appointed as focal point to work with this group.


Managed Development and Planning

Recommendation: Continue working to achieve a further Supplementary Planning Document.

A draft Supplementary Planning Document is to be put out for consultation by the principal authority later in 2009. The main issues covered by this draft – which include those identified by the Plan for Prestbury – are as follows:

• Reinforcing protection of the Green belt around Prestbury
• Ensuring appropriate development in the village that is sympathetic to its character
• Any new housing within the parish should recognise the needs of an ageing population
• A requirement that gated communities should make provision within their own land for vehicles to pull off the highway to ensure safe access.
• The need to retain ‘soft’ (eg hedged) boundaries wherever possible

Recommendation: Link the Prestbury web site to MBC’s (Cheshire East’s) Considerate Contractors Scheme

We note that a requirement for developers to follow the Considerate Contractors scheme is included in the draft SPD.

Recommendation: The Parish Council is urged to be more pro-active in attempting to influence local planning policy.

The Parish Council notes this point and will do its best, given the opportunity provided by the formation of a new planning authority and Local Area Partnerships, to exercise influence. In practice, however, there are limits to the influence that parish councils are able to exert in these matters.

Recommendation: An ongoing tree management programme should be introduced in the parish as a joint venture between the Parish Council and Cheshire East.

The idea is fully supported by the Parish Council which obtained from Cheshire County Council, before it ceased to exist at the end of March, a report on the condition of trees adjoining the highways which emanated from an investigation they paid consultants to carry out last year. The Parish Council has also logged with the new Unitary Authority, Cheshire East, that this is an issue it wishes to take forward in concert with it.


Prestbury Business Group

Recommendation: Permanently establish Prestbury Business Forum; attempt through this group to find tenants for vacant commercial premises.

The Parish Council welcomes the formation of this group and will be happy to wortk with them in any practical way we can to help. A Councillor will be appointed as a focal point for contact between the Business Forum and the Council.


Parking

Recommendation: Construct new ’Riverside’ car park and replace toilet block with one or two smaller unisex units

The Parish Council acknowledges that the Plan for Prestbury presents persuasive evidence to show car parking in Prestbury can be problematic. We note that 60% of respondents to the P4P survey were either dissatisfied with parking provision or felt that improvement was required. The survey of utilisation demonstrates that, at times, the Shirley’s car park is full during busy day time hours and that the Springfields is often similarly full to capacity in the evening time. We also acknowledge the desire expressed by businesses for additional parking and the belief that this may be one factor in the difficulty being encountered in re-letting the vacant commercial premises in The Village.

The solution proposed is to create an additional car park on the site of the public conveniences adjacent to the river Bollin. However, it would appear that this could potentially have mixed consequences on nearby domestic properties. There might be less traffic using Bridge Green to turn round but there might be a greater nuisance to one property in particular from the noise of car doors slamming late at night.

In spite of evidence presented as to the limited use made of the existing public toilets, (and the dislike of the design of the toilet block expressed when the Village Design Statement survey was conducted), widespread opposition has been expressed by residents to the loss of this facility, a fact acknowledged by P4P in a proposal to retain a toilet facility, albeit on a reduced scale. The Council notes the positive response given to improved landscaping segment of the P4P proposal and feels that local organisations may wish to look at the possibility of improving the overall landscaping of the area around the toilet block.

In this age of the multiple car family and reduced public transport, there can be few, if any, communities that cannot point to some inadequacy in car parking provision. Prestbury is no exception to this and the Parish Council neither wishes to underestimate this fact nor to downplay genuine concerns of the parish’s businesses as to the long-term viability of commercial activity in Prestbury. Nevertheless, interpreting the evidence of scale of the problem of car parking in the parish – including the statistical evidence of utilisation – is a matter of judgement. We have to balance the provision of a limited number of additional parking spaces against the effect on the historic village centre of developing an essentially open space in the heart of the conservation area.
The Parish Council recognises the measure of support expressed at the October Open Weekend to the proposed development but nevertheless we remain cautious about sanctioning such a permanent alteration to the village centre. There also remains the question of establishing a solution to the public toilets issue that would command widespread support.

As the Plan for Prestbury points out, funding the proposed scheme represents a considerable hurdle and no immediate funding solutions are envisaged. It is a fact, therefore, that an early implementation of the plan is not a viable proposition and so we can take time for further consideration. The Parish Council would particularly like to gain a better understanding of the businesses’ concerns about parking and we would be happy to undertake further work on utilisation levels. In addition, we would wish to be sure that opportunities to expand capacity in the existing car parks have been fully and exhaustively pursued before a new car park is contemplated and will undertake to pursue this with the new principal authority. The possibility of creating a small lay-by parking area to facilitate off-road access for motorists using the toilets or making brief calls to the New Road shops might also be considered. As short term measures we fully support the proposal to mark individual spaces on the A538 in The Village and to improve signage to and in the existing car parks.


Pedestrians, Lighting and Cycling

Recommendation: More active management of land in the Bollin Valley to reduce current overgrowth.

The Parish Council would support such an initiative, which would require not only a significant volunteer effort but also co-ordination with the landowner(s) and with the Bollin Valley Project. A Councillor has volunteered to progress this.

Recommendation: Upgrade the public footpath from Bridge Green to the Macclesfield boundary to a joint use for both walkers and cyclists.

The Council can see from the results of the household survey that such a change would be popular and well-supported by the majority of the community but it is aware there is a minority dissenting voice which must also be considered. . We note that no firm proposals have been put forward and would intend to progress the idea to a point at which a specific and costed scheme could be put to the community for further consultation.

Recommendation: Improve pedestrian safety on Bollin Grove by widening the pavement wherever possible and restricting parking

As the Plan points out, this is a key walk-to-school route and the Parish Council would be strongly supportive of schemes that provide genuine and sustained improvements in the safety of such routes. As yet we have seen no firm or costed plans for this particular scheme and, on the face of what has been suggested, we can see some difficulties. Nevertheless, the Council would wish to pursue the possibilities formally with the new Cheshire East authority, along with other traffic-related recommendations in the Plan (see comments under “Traffic and Transportation” below.

Recommendations regarding improved pedestrian safety on Castlegate, Chelford Road and Heybridge Lane

See comments under “Traffic and Transportation” below.


Traffic and Transportation

The Parish Council notes that the recommendations contained in this section of the report are a condensed version of a longer and comprehensive review carried out by the P4P’s working group. We also acknowledge that matters relating to volume and speed of traffic are of significant concern to residents.

The Council believes that all of the recommendations that have been made aimed at either reducing speed or improving road safety, including those referred to above under the Pedestrians, Lighting and Cycling section, have merit and warrant pursuing further. In saying this we would also note that a number of the suggestions made have been attempted in the past without success. We are reluctant to raise expectations that cannot realistically be fulfilled and, as the members of the P4P working group themselves have surely discovered, convincing traffic engineers of the need to make changes is an extremely challenging and frequently dispiriting task. Finally, if success is to be achieved in the actions proposed, then a wider commitment will be needed from the community as a whole. Such a commitment is likely to take the form of a willingness to pay, probably though the precept, for changes as the offer of a financial contribution from the Parish can help to open doors to other funding sources. It will also demand a commitment in time and personal involvement from volunteers as recent initiatives such as schemes such as Speedwatch and the SID speeding monitoring devices have been handicapped by a lack of such sustained volunteer resource.

With these important provisos, the Council recognises the challenge to do all in its power to try to address the proposals made in the Plan. We therefore intend to form a new working group within the Council, made up of a small number of councillors, probably supplemented by co-opted volunteers, that will be tasked with devising an implementation plan to take forward, on a prioritised basis, the Plan’s recommendations. We would envisage that this task will require a considerable time span.






Prestbury Parish Council
24th April 2009