Minutes of the public meeting with Councillors, 20 April

NOTES MADE DURING THE MEETING on                                                                                                                                FRIDAY 20^th APRIL                                                                                                                                                                             DEAN ROW VILLAGE HALL

·         Several members of the public said that they had no warning of the Draft Wilmslow Vision Consultation (DWVC).

·         The maps in the brochure very unclear.

·         Who are the stakeholders? They weren’t representing me! How were they selected?

·         MICHAEL JONES, Leader of CEC –elect, said that ‘It was not good enough’!

·         Cllr PAUL WHITELEY, CEC Dean Row, explained how he had served Dean Row for many years and was a vigorous supporter of the retention of green belt. All landowners, he said, were entitled to apply for planning permission on their respective pieces of land. Currently this is happening throughout CE for the CE Local Plan.  In the past, he told the meeting, that he had defended the green belt in Dean Row and would continue to do so.

·         MICHAEL JONES said that the two plots of land (Ba & Bb) would not be in the plan He added that if he had known that this land was going to be put in the plan he would have had it removed!

·         Cllr JIM CROCKATT, Chairman of Wilmslow Town Council, reminded all that he had represented Dean Row for years and he was ‘not going to stop now’. He also vouched for all his councillor colleagues. He also voiced concern over the amount of time given to the residents to return their questionnaires. He thought that the Council had contacted all the residents to tell them about the DWVC. The audience clearly did not agree with this assumption and made their feelings felt. We were then told that the date for returning questionnaires has now been extended by one month to 31^st May.

·         The meeting’s Chairman said that it was a disgrace that we had not been told and also added that a key module of information was missing from the report even though this had been promised in earlier Council material – that of the important Sustainability Report.

·         PAUL WHITELEY covered the topic of the Safeguarded land. This is land for houses when needed. In the case of plot Bc in Dean Row he explained that this land had been considered in the previous plan and had been rejected and held its status. In his opinion plot Bc will remain as Safeguarded house supply land but would not be the first choice.

·         MANUEL GOLDING from Lindow Common/Fulshaw suggested that the ‘structure’ of Wilmslow is creaking. He is working with a small action group in his area.  He wants all the District action groups to work together to fight the DWVC as one organisation. This he felt would stop residents merely defending their own patches. There was much support shown to this plea.

·         ONE LADY called for a single meeting for the whole of Wilmslow in a larger hall. The meeting Chairman agreed that the Friends of Dean Row would be happy to work with a united Wilmslow faction.

·         Several members of the public criticised the Broadway Malyan report and questionnaire. Serious doubts were raised regarding the quality of the stakeholder group. To much applause one gentleman said that the people in the hall are a better representation of stakeholders than those selected by Broadway Malyan as the residents are the one who buy their homes, educate their children, shop and pay their rates in the town. Another resident criticised the construction of the questionnaire. This, he said, was a joke and any research deriving from it would be worthless. Many at the meeting called for its withdrawal.

·         Following a specific question about the green belt land Ha & Hb to the north of Handforth Road MICHAEL JONES informed the meeting that neither plots would be built on.

·         MICHAEL JONES was also asked how the figure of 1,500 new homes in the Plan had been arrived at. He told the meeting that it had come from an ‘academic’ within the Broadway Mulyan team.

·         A LADY said that she did not want the character of Dean Row to change and asked how she could object. By returning the questionnaire she was told.

·         BRIAN WINTERBURN thought that the Dean Row area had had enough development thrust upon them over recent years and that enough was enough. With Colshaw Farm, Summerfields, the By-Pass, and the perceived impact from the Woodford Aerodrome development to our corner of the town we should be left alone. He also considered that the Handforth is struggling already and couldn’t cope with further residents.

·         ONE GENTLEMAN asked if the process was a plebiscite. He was told by MICHAEL JONES that it was not – it was a consultancy!

·         When asked how one should respond to the questions regarding building on green belt MICHAEL JONES advised to say no to everything.

·         MICHAEL JONES remarked that he did not agree with the DWVC document’s figure of 1,500 new homes. He thought that there were enough brown field sites in Wilmslow to cover the house requirements throughout the period.

·         CHRISTY WILKIE from the Dean Row Chapel told the meeting that the Chapel was a grade two star listed building built without foundations. More traffic along Adlington Road could destroy the foundations and we could lose over 400 years of that heritage.

·         Questions were asked about the inadequate site map in the Broadway Malyan document. The Friends of Dean Row will attempt to put the link on their blog site showing the site plans and planners involved.  An appeal to include brown field sites was made by BRIAN WINTERBURN.

·         MICHAEL JONES was asked by what process was Broadway Mulyan appointed to their task and how much was the cost and was he aware that one of BM’s clients is Wimpey who own one of the sites Ba in Dean Row. Mr Jones said they paid £30,000 for the report and that if he finds out that BN do have Wimpey as a client will ask for the money back and BM will never work for the Council again. If he’d know that BM would not have got the business in the first place.

·         One Resident said that there was no future for a theatre or cinema in the town.

·         When asked when a decision might be made on the DWVC, MICHAEL JONES advised that it would be in the autumn (November). The sites will all then be discussed and an evaluation of all the brown sites will be evaluated in conjuction with the needs.

·         The Chairman of the meeting re-visited the missing and promised sustainability report in the document. MICHAEL JONES said he would look into it. Another Councillor suggested that it could be available in about a month’s time.

·         There was general agreement that strong local response is vital. The meeting Chairman was asked by a lady resident whether he was ready to lead a campaign to carry the torch forward as a combined force. Commenting that we all want no part of this document and must, absolutely, work together. 

·         When asked whether the Council would publish the details of their stakeholder consultations MICHAEL JONES said ‘Why not! I think we will publish it’!

·         A local business man offered to pay half the costs incurred by the ‘Friends of Dean Row’ on receipt of an invoice.

·         A vote of thanks was made to the Chairman of the meeting and he closed the meeting at 8.50 pm and the 200 attendees went home.