2015 in Wilmslow: A year in review

As 2015 draws to a close it is time to take a look back at the biggest news stories of the past twelve months in Wilmslow and share some statistics with our readers.

During 2015 the wilmslow.co.uk website has been visited 681,213 times and generated 1.5 million page views!

Over the course of the year I've managed to publish 1,181 articles which have received 3,040 reader comments.

Topics which appeared regularly in the news this year included parking problems, Cheshire East's Local Plan (which will guide development up to 2030), the future of Alderley Park, illegal traveller's camps, the peat extraction at Lindow Moss and plans for public toilets in the Carrs.

This year also saw the town pick up a GOLD award for the second year running, at the RHS North West in Bloom 2015 awards presentation. In their fourth year of entry Wilmslow also received the Best Community Effort, meanwhile in their first year of entry Chorley has picked up Bronze in the Village category whilst Styal has won Silver in the Large Village category. The Friends of the Carrs were also awarded a level 4 award, which was categorised as 'thriving', for their work to improve the town park.

Plans to convert an historic pub into an American restaurant were withdrawn following local opposition, Royal London gaining planning permission for a new car park and work commenced on both the Adlington Road development of 200+ homes and the new £290m Manchester Airport relief road.

A free weekly 5k parkrun and a 2k junior parkrun were launched in the Carrs and Wilmslow Wells for Africa passed the £1 million milestone - raising money to help improve life in drought-stricken areas of Africa.

Plans to demolish two former council office buildings off Chapel Lane and replace them with retirement apartments were approved, whilst two planning applications to build 14 homes on Lindow Moss and restore the 28 hectares peat extraction site to a natural wetland habitat, which were expected to be decided in March and April of this year, are yet to be determined.

More recently plans for a major retail development at Handforth Dean were unveiled and Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council announced his resignation.

Additionally, the Conservative candidates took 14 of the 15 seats on Wilmslow Town Council. All the existing councillors who stood in May's local election retained their seat, with the exception of Ruth McNulty who missed out on the 4th seat in the Wilmslow East Ward by 46 votes to her daughter Fiona. Residents of Wilmslow candidate Dave Jefferay, who was elected to the Town Council in November 2014, retained his seat and is now the only non Conservative on Wilmslow Town Council.

This year also saw some great events take place in the town including the inaugural Wilmslow Food & Drink Week, the second Wilmslow Art Trail, Wilmslow Show, Party on the Carrs plus the first ever Cinema on the Carrs - which will return next year with a showing of the movie Grease. 2015 also saw the 5th Wilmslow Rotary Scarecrow Festival, Wilmslow's first Community Awards and the return of the Wilmslow Motor Show.

A whole host of new shops and businesses opened in the town during the year, including Katie Homes, CAU, Italianlab, The Works, Tops Tiles, Unico Lounge, Wine Rack, Nourish, Art My Treasure Gallery, The Cheshire Watch Company, James Lakeland, Lusso, Aroma, Chocolates Etc, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation shop and 900 Degrees.

Additionally Royles relocated their Knutsford Road store to a new 3000 square foot showroom at Total Fitness, Bang & Olufsen relocated to Alderley Road, The Swan pub reopened after refurbishment as Anthology, M local was rebranded MyLocal and The Clink Restaurant opened at Styal Prison.

We also said goodbye to M & Co, The Lighthaus, Nought to Sixteen, Spruce Dry Cleaners, East and The Co-operative Bank closed their Wilmslow branch.

In 2016 a Harvester restaurant will open on Altrincham Road, replacing The Boddington Arms, Haslams shoe shop will relocate to larger premises on Grove Street and the new owners of the Stanneylands Hotel will reposition the property as a boutique country house hotel.

Also please don't forget we now invite reader's to send in their photos of the local area and letters covering local issues to [email protected].

Most read articles of 2015

1. Woman 37 left traumatised after being seriously sexually assaulted in Wilmslow

2. Stranger danger alert after girl invited to hop in car

3. Retiring Vulcan bomber to take to the skies above Woodford

4. Teenage girl assaulted after getting into fake taxi

5. 32-year-old man found hanged at The Edge

6. Locals oppose plans to convert pub into American restaurant

7. Outdoor cinema coming to Wilmslow

8. Driver left shaken after Summerfields crash

9. Plans for new retail development at Handforth Dean

10. New healthy eating cafe coming to Wilmslow

11. Parents investigate two suspicious incidents involving teenagers

12. Stanneylands Hotel goes into administration

13. Plans for a new restaurant at Parsonage Green

14. Complaints as restaurant erects eyesore

15. 40-year-old man sadly passes away after police called to incident on Twinnies Road

16. Police re-appeal following sexual assault at station

17. 17-year-old arrested in Wilmslow sexual assault investigation

18. Town centre pub plans to reopen after major refurbishment

19. Work to commence on Adlington Road development

20. Developer to unveil plans for new Handforth Dean shopping park

I would like to publicly thank those local businesses who have booked our annual visibility packages and kindly allocated some of their marketing spend to our local independent business, enabling them to promote themselves and their events throughout the year.

Without the support of the following it really would not have been possible for us to continue to provide this service: Bupa Care Homes, Just Resorts, Orbit Developments, TWP Wealth, Alderley Edge School for Girls, Aldeli, Destinology, Fairerpower, Highams, Kimble Roden Architects, Nick Allen Window Cleaner, Royles, Royles Jaguar and The Ryleys - all of which are featured in our advertisers directory.

We were also delighted that Waters Corporation chose to support the service we provide to the community by sponsoring our weekly newsletter for the third year running.

If you don't yet receive our weekly newsletters all you need to do is register on the site, it's free and only take a minute. Please do tell your local family, friends and collegues about this free service. Also please remember the weekly newsletter is only a summary, we are publishing the latest news as it happens on a daily basis on wilmslow.co.uk so do come back and visit regularly.

Share your highs and lows of life in Wilmslow in 2015, and your predictions for the new year in Wilmslow via the comment box below.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read wilmslow.co.uk, we wishing you all have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016.