Cheadle Civic Society
| Published: 22nd May 2008 22:01 |
Come & Join Us!
We are an independent, locally-based charity with a record of 40years service to the Community of Cheadle. We are not connected to any political party. We were founded to stimulate public interest in the beauty, history and character of the village and its surroundings.
Cheadle may no longer be a village in the strict sense of the word, but there are still people who care about their locality, about the buildings. The abundant parkland, the shops, the traffic (!) and who try to do something positive to improve them where needed or preserve the best from the past where possible. Cheadle was listed in the Domesday Book. It contains several ancient or notable buildings, including the Parish Church, (c: 1520). There are two great halls, Abney and Bruntwood, from the Victorian period. Each set in parkland. A smaller black and white manor house, the mid-17th century Moseley Old Hall, still survives surrounded by a modern housing estate.
Some Successes
We took a leading role in the saving of Bruntwood Park from commercial development in 1983. Higher Mill Park and Brooklyn Park were both preserved after our suggestions. Members of the Society cleared and re-planted the abandoned plots beside the White Hart and the corner of Bank Street. The Council then took over their maintenance.
What we do....
- Maintain friendly communications with local Councillors and officers in the planning & parks departments.
- Help to design and pay for the hanging flower basket in summer and the Christmas lights.
- Clear and re-plant neglected vacant sites and pay for many public seats. Thousands of bulbs have been planted around the village.
- Keep a regular check on forthcoming planning applications, submitting objections or suggestions where necessary.
Membership of the Society is open to all in with an interest in Cheadle's heritage. Our present membership is around 250, of which 11 from the committee. As a member you will be entitled to attend the Annual General Meeting, held in May, any lectures and exhibitions and to receive the Society's newsletters.
One year's subscription is £5 per household or Institution. Please send cheques, payable to Cheadle Civic Society, to the Hon. Treasurer, Philip Gould-Bourn, 19 Morningside Road, Cheadle AK8 1NJ
We need your support and would particularly welcome volunteers to help on the committee especially those with knowledge of information technology.
Cheadle Civic Society
Chairman's report 2007/2008
published 22nd May 2008
Your Committee has had yet another busy year. We meet on the second Tuesday of every month, (usually with no more than two absencees) and discuss matters such as new planning applications and how to respond to them, matters on which we wish to press the Council such as parking in the area, maintenance of the gardens and so on..
Alan Murphy attends all of the local area committee meetings and introduces a report to our committee. Philip Gouldbourne and Damien Lynch continue to update and manage the membership database. Derek Seddon continues to produce minutes of the meetings despite his continued expressed desire to retire and Alan Bridge attends a miscellania of other meetings at the Town Hall the Civic Trust and elsewhere. Philip Gouldbourne continues with his work as Treasurer and managing the archive. I hope you enjoy his display at the AGM. I thank them for all their efforts.
Alan Murphy, Geoff Thompson and Andrew Taylor attend Cheadle Civic Partnership meetings every two months and continue to discuss and influence the issues of the moment with the local authority and other residents associations. Maureen Mather still continues with her efforts in selling postcards which she has produced on behalf of the Society and attends Manchester Airport interest meetings. Pat Seddon has produced another newsletter.
Much of the above paragraphs are the same as my report last year and I have done that purposely. Many of our Committee have given service for more years than I would care to think and I thank them not only for their ongoing efforts but for the length of time, patience and persistence they are putting in continuing to represent Cheadle's interest.
I do not think it is appreciated how much effort is required to, for instance, attend Cheadle Area meetings every month, year in year out, to continually revisit new newsletters or keep on top of the finances and produce accounts every year. If there is anybody in the Society who would wish to contribute to and assist the Committee I would be pleased to hear from them.
An awful lot has again been going on in the current year. The biggest issue has been the Church's efforts to acquire The Upper Room site and then to negotiate both with a prospective supermarket and the Council the planning permission and opening of a new supermarket on the site. They put extraordinary efforts into that and I congratulate them. I have been involved in occasionally giving the Society's viewpoint on the matter - which obviously is that a supermarket is vital to the continuing economic survival of the village - and have tried to influence some of the more stupid impositions of the local authority.
I was quoted in Cheadle Parish Church's magazine during last summer to the effect that a lot of our work is not to create dramatic changes but to chip away at issues and problems in the village and hopefully to see small incremental improvements which over the years contribute considerably. One of our other roles is to prevent some of the dafter ideas that go about with regards to planning and Council policy - there are plenty of those!
We have opposed a number of planning applications during the course of the year, many of which have been refused or modified and I think that we have contributed towards the groundswell of objection in those.
We have tried also to influence various activities of the Council in terms of maintenance and repair. That has not been entirely successful as the wheels of the Town Hall work very slowly unless it is to their benefit.
We continue to argue against the tarmacing of areas around the High Street which is contrary to the Local Area Policy and we believe that proper paving stones should be laid.
We have also campaigned for the repair and replacement of the inadequate paving in the High Street, which again has been of limited success.
Our continual pressing for bollards to be spaced out in a more uniform manner has met with no interest whatsoever, although we persist. The request for bollards to be placed around the island at Rectory Gardens to stop parking on the car parks may at last be bearing fruit as one of the Councillors has requested somebody to produce a budget for that. It is a shame it has taken 3 years for that to occur but a possible success nonetheless.
There are still moves at the Town Hall to produce coherent plans for what should happen to Cheadle Green, although not much sight of money being produced to do anything. Again we continue on a regular basis to press for that.
Likewise we continue to press for a one-way system around Church Street and that area so that the access around the lych gate does not continue to be so dangerous with vehicles finding an impasse when they meet, in particular we are keen for some system to operate which will prevent lorries damaging the Church walls. After 7 years of pressing for that it appears that some action may be apparent in the Town Hall. Faint hope!
I hope in the above you do not deem me to be despondent, because I am not. We continue to be a considerable influence on what happens and have many positive effects. The slowness of response to requests has changed little over the 30 years that I have been involved with the Civic Society - nonetheless continual pressure does eventually have results and without the pressure there would be no results at all.
I hope to see as many of you as is possible, including non-members that you could encourage to come at the AGM and the highly entertaining talk and film show we have laid on. See details here
Andrew Taylor
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