Playing field take-over moves closer

The much debated take-over by the village of the playing field, car park, tennis courts and children's playground moved a major step forward last night at the July meeting of Audlem Parish Council.

As readers who have followed this lengthy saga will know, for several years the parish council has been discussing applying to Cheshire East Council who can devolve responsibility of these facilities to local control. An extraordinary meeting of the parish council last October saw around sixty members of the public voting overwhelmingly in favour of such a move.

A parish council working group has been working hard on the details and last night a report detailing the community benefits, how the facilities will be managed, costings, and past experience of managing devolved assets in the village (notably the public toilets) was presented to the council. A decision as whether to send that report, in effect a request to take-over the facilities, to Cheshire East was to be voted on.

Councillor Bill Consterdine immediately moved a motion that the report should go to Cheshire East but a lengthy debate followed with Councillors Geoff Seddon and Dave Siddorns arguing strongly against.

Cllr Seddon said that he had always been against the take-over saying that it meant inevitable rises in tax (the precept) for local residents, that he could not see the benefits of taking on these facilities and that they would be a liability rather than an asset and he would be voting against the proposal.

He was supported by Cllr Siddorns who agreed that it represented double taxation as residents were already paying for the facilities through their council tax. He raised a series of questions about parking and how the car park would be managed with issues such as over-night parking and whether charges would be imposed to help offset the costs.

He also asked whether the additional costs of the playing field complex take-over would impact negatively on the support the parish council could give to the Public Hall annexe project (APHAx).

There was little support for these arguments from other councillors and Cllr Seddon's view of the extent of the costs involved was challenged as running the facilities as a Charitable Trust would reduce some costs significantly. When the vote was taken, it was approved by a majority with just the two votes against.

Cheshire East Councillor Rachel Bailey confirmed that the report would now be considered either by the borough council's portfolio holder or by the cabinet.

Audlem was the first parish to take-over a facility under the borough council's devolvement programme four years ago after the closure of the public toilets. They were then refurbished and have proved a great success winning a national award and much praise from users.

Last month, the take-over of the land behind the Public Hall was approved by Cheshire East for the sum of £1 which will be the site of the Annexe. It was reported at last night's meeting by Cllr Siddorns, who is the parish council representative on APHAx, that the project was moving forward very well.

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