Last year Cheshire East Council made the controversial decision to lease one of the town's oldest buildings to a Stockport-based construction company.
Two community groups had hoped to transform the derelict Rectory Stables, which is situated adjacent to Wilmslow Leisure Centre Car Park, into a community hub.
Wilmslow Trust and Transition Wilmslow had hoped to convert the the derelict Rectory Stables, which is situated adjacent to Wilmslow Leisure Centre Car Park, into a community hub - to provide a meeting room and exhibition space for information on the town's local heritage.
However, they were unsuccessful and instead, Cheshire East Council selected Lyme Design and Build Limited and agreed to enter into a 10 year lease with the company, which proposes to use the site for an office and storage.
Plans have now been approved to enable the site to be used for an office and storage. Lyme Design and Build have been granted planning permission to install new external glazing to the gable end along with new aluminium windows and doors. The scheme also includes remodelling the interior to create office space on the ground floor with a meeting room, reception area, a kitchen and storage space with additional office space on a mezzanine floor.
The building will be occupied by 4 full-time employees with the provision of one car parking space.
Comments
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Can we please have local decision making taken out of the hands of the discredited County Council and given to a beefed up Wilmslow Town Council.
Mr Piltz, in his comment, has made the assumption that Cheshire East refused an application for a 'Community Hub' but actually for a Heritage Centre, made by two voluntary groups. This is wholly incorrect.
The two groups did indeed have lengthy discussions with CEC. These lasted for around 12 months during which time CEC deliberately did not hold any conversations with any other parties in order that the proposal could be fully substantiated and a funding stream identified. Considerable publicity was generated by both groups in support of their idea, including a number of articles on this site. The positive comments recorded demonstrated a local appetite to support their outline proposal.
Both Groups, both members of the Wilmslow Partnership at the time, faced three issues. How would they fund the renovation; how would they fund ongoing running costs including staffing, maintenance and rent and, fundamentally, as their proposal was to create a heritage centre, which particular aspects of Wilmslow's heritage would they want to showcase.
As Chair of the Partnership I was keen to pin down both the funding issues and the content and context. Unfortunately, no practical scheme was ever presented to the management team to substantiate the original vision. In the event the two groups came to the conclusion that they were unable to achieve a practical, robust plan to bring their vision to fruition and subsequently withdrew their interest.
This community hub was exactly the sort of project the governments NHB was supposed to fund. However, Wilmslow never got the chance as Cheshire East just kept the money.
While this building application will create 4 town centre jobs (great news) it only has 1 car space though. Therefore, it will add to the problems our chronic lack of all-day parking already creates. Once again, no joined up thinking by CE.
Our parking problem is something the NHB grant could still yet fix though. Wilmslow will generate £5m in NHB over the next few years as the wide-scale housing developments around the town are built. However, Cheshire East is only giving Wilmslow a paltry £44k of this £5m, which won’t even build the town a new loo, let alone a car park.
CE is also unilaterally deciding how we will spend this £44k without any meaningful input from Wilmslow Town Council. It’s amazing CE knows what the town wants though, considering they don’t even know we have a parking problem. CE have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into running a parking survey just to understand the problems we can all see.
However, CE might understand the people of Wilmslow a bit better in May 2019, when the town gets to pass judgement on its continued poor performance.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Wilmslow Town Council
Residents of Wilmslow
The digression to the New Homes Bonus allocation of £2m over 2 years raises some points that may cause confusion. The fuller details are in the article of 26 October and relevant extracts are
-this is a one-off scheme with no commitment beyond 2019/20
-the area is Wilmslow/Handforth/Alderley Edge for which there is £173,462
-there is no allocation beneath that so a figure of £44k for Wilmslow is theoretical
-the 8 Cheshire East councillors of all parties decided the priorities not CEC
-the same councillors not CEC will judge the grant applications and then pass to CEC
-every Town councillor can talk to any CEC councillor of any party for meaningful input
-grant applications should be for at least £10k and be self-funding beyond 2019/20
Full details are on the CEC website
NHB funds for each area within the Wilmslow Award Group are, per annum, for 2 years only, as follows:
Alderley Edge £3,174
Chorley £635
Handforth £9,976
Styal £363
Wilmslow £22,583
In addition £50,000 will be given for each of the 2 years to all Award Groups.
According therefore £45,000 is being given back to Wilmslow residents when developments in the Town have actually generated over £1.5M - the total the Council has received to date from the Government for Wilmslow alone.
Perhaps as a member of the majority Conservative Party running the Council you could explain to residents what the balance - £1.45M - has been used for given the pressure on local infrastructure?
It would also be helpful if you could explain to residents why the Council has only agreed to run this scheme for 2 years.
When all the new developments approved on Green Belt land in Wilmslow - Little Stanneylands, Heathfield Farm, Royal London, Clay Lane/Sagars Road - are built out the Council, under the current NHB scheme, will receive in excess of £1M a year for 4 years.
Why, in line with Government guidance, is the Council not asking local residents what they would like this money to be used for, as it intended?
Councillor Toni Fox - Independent
Dean Row Ward, Wilmslow
You have kindly shown the basis of how the £173,462 was calculated. However, this has no bearing on how the money will be spent and it is confusing not to make this clear.
As one of the 8 councillors on the Awards group you agreed the local priorities not CEC. Local residents will tell us how they want the money spent by their grant applications.
You are entirely missing the point.
Whether the Award Group allocates £45,000 or the full £173,000 both amounts are a small fraction of the £1.5 Million pounds the Council has received for new developments in Wilmslow alone (not Handforth or Alderley Edge).
These are simple questions from residents that you, and the Conservative Party, have chosen to ignore.
Why has the Council not consulted residents on what it should do with the money, ALL the New Homes Bonus money, it has received from the Government as it intended?
What has the Council done with the £1.5 million that the Government anticipated would be used to mitigate for new growth within the local area - in this case, Wilmslow?
Why is the Council only running this scheme for 2 years given it will be receiving millions more for all the new developments in Wilmslow in the coming years?
Councillor Toni Fox - Independent
Dean Row Ward - Wilmslow
I would like to see answers to The very simple questions asked by Cllr Fox.
The spread of new homes in all directions scares me as I lived in South Manchester for 10 years & there are no green space between the 'villages' & I don't want that to happen here!
I spent an idyllic life growing up & I want everyone to feel the same!
Wilmslow continues to sprawl as overspill housing for Greater Manchester.
Our Independent Councillors work tirelessly to help us Residents. It would be unfair to tar all Conservatives with the same brush, but the North Cheshire sprawl is of their making. There is so little understanding of our future economy and how to recognise and encourage innovation. To just build houses up here and not regenerate the rural economy for example, by getting villages back to a critical mass to be sustainable is wrong.
New Homes Bonus was introduced in 2011 and at the time Cheshire East Council took the legitimate option of allocating any monies received to general income. Over time the contribution per new dwelling has decreased and is set to decrease further. The proper person to ask about the future trend is your MP.
The other questions you pose should be addressed to the relevant Cabinet member and as a councillor you have the right to ask and indeed could post here the answers.
You have quoted many figures and on checking I am told that the source is not Cheshire East. So you must have devoted a lot of effort to produce the figures but as they are personal with no official status they are no basis to construct an arguement.
House of Commons Briefing Paper on New Homes Bonus July 2017:
“Local Authorities have flexibility on how to spend the unringfenced grant but the DCLG (now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) expects local councils to consult communities about how the money will be spent”.
When did the consultation take place?
I have addressed the same questions to the Cabinet Member and the Leader of the Council but, like yourself, they refuse to provide any answers.
The figures I have quoted are from spreadsheets handed out by Jan Willis, Interim Executive Director of Corporate Services, to members of the NHB Task Group, that was set up and attended by the Leader of the Council and cross party representatives.
If you would like a copy - so that you can go back to whoever misinformed you at the Council and ask them why they have put you in such an embarrassing position - I would be more than happy to oblige.
Councillor Toni Fox - Independent
Dean Row Ward, Wilmslow
Our figures on NHB for Wilmslow are based on a Freedom of Information reply from.......... yes, you guessed it...............Cheshire East.
Therefore, as our numbers come from CE officers, you perhaps might want to get up to speed on the topic. Alternatively, you can tell us what figures you have and we can compare them to our official ones?
Grant Shapps the Housing Minister told the House of Commons that the New Homes Bonus was introduced to help local communities benefit from housing developments and not just suffer from them. To quote from Hansard on 1st Dec 2011
"We are committed to ensuring that the bonus remains a flexible, non-ringfenced fund, for local communities to spend as they see fit"
So how exactly did Wilmslow see fit to spend it?
It didn't. Instead it was a behind the scenes decision taken by a handful of Cheshire East officials and Wilmslow was never consulted. This is exactly the type of action that the Change Cheshire East campaign is trying to stop by bringing transparency to the councils decision making process.
Residents within Cheshire East can sign the petition at: https://www.change.org/p/changecheshireeast
If we get 15,000 signatures, then a referendum must be held (probably alongside the local elections in May 2019) that will give us the chance to stop Cheshire East from being run like a cabal. Instead, decisions would have to be made in open forums and not behind closed doors.
Currently, the number of signatures (both on and off line) are very good but short of the final sum needed. Therefore, sign up now if you want to see meaningful change within Cheshire East.
Surely CEC should be put into Special Measures?