Concern over PC 'car park' announcement

Concern has been expressed to AudlemOnline from a number of quarters about Audlem Parish Council's announcement, published on Tuesday, about the Extraordinary meeting to be held on Thursday 30th October.

Comment has focussed particularly on the sentence: "It may be possible to generate some income by charging for the use of any of the areas of the complex, including charging for car parking if this proved necessary."

Any suggestion that car parking charges would ever be introduced is, at best, mistaken and, at worst, misleading, say campaigners in favour of taking over these assets. Indeed, one of the arguments in favour of taking over the car park could be to ensure that the borough council, Cheshire East, can never impose car parking charges in Audlem.

The only discussion that has ever taken place, supporters say, is possibly installing an 'honesty box' in the car park, along the same lines as in the public toilets, where visitors, if they wish, can make an entirely voluntary contribution to defray long-term costs such as resurfacing. This is in no way 'charging for car parking'.

There was also little in the announcement about the upside of taking over these vital village assets, say those in favour, such as ensuring that the football field is properly maintained, unlike at present, and these important assets are controlled locally.

Several week's ago, AudlemOnline drew attention to two notable successes when facilities have been taken over by the village. Perhaps it is timely to recap:

In 1983, the newly formed Audlem Tennis Club took over the leasehold on the tennis courts and started to improve them. When previously run entirely by Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council, the courts were totally uncared for, the nets broken, the perimeter netting full of holes and frankly dangerous, the playing surface broken up and the lines faded. In total, nobody played tennis because of the dreadful state of the courts.

Within a year, the courts had been totally resurfaced, the nets and perimeter netting completely replaced, floodlights installed and a thriving tennis club was providing free training for youngsters, league teams were in operation and social tennis was attracting large numbers of players.

All had been transformed for the good by local volunteers, effective fund-raising and enthusiastic support from the local community.

The courts, which have now been resurfaced three times by the tennis club over the past thirty years, are probably the best playing courts in south and mid-Cheshire.

Similarly, with the toilets in the car park when they were taken over three years ago by the village from Cheshire East, who had then just closed them down. They had been a disgrace previously, only used if in desperation. But the village had them re-opened after a total renovation, charges were abolished, they are now cleaned daily, and they have rightly won a Gold award in the national Loo of the Year competition.

They are now a credit to the village when elsewhere public toilets are being closed to everyone's inconvenience, a point made on national TV when the BBC's The One Show came to film the news that Audlem's toilets were to re-open.

Even the 'honesty boxes' have worked extremely well, helping to defray expenses, hence a similar idea possibly being considered if the car park is taken over.

We understand that when three Cheshire East officials visited Audlem a week or so ago to assess the facilities that might be devolved, they asked to see both the tennis courts and the public toilets. They were, we have heard, extraordinarily impressed with both facilities and expressed admiration for the way the village had developed them.

AudlemOnline will, of course, try to retain its impartiality in any argument about whether the village is to take over full control of the car park, playing field etc but we would be less than balanced in our coverage of the issue if we did not point out how successful previous take-overs have been and did not draw attention to what some consider a possibly misleading comment in the Parish Council's announcement on Tuesday.

The Extraordinary meeting of the Parish Council is next Thursday, 30th October, at 7.30pm in the Methodist Church Hall when, hopefully, many residents will attend and hear both the pros and cons of taking over these important assets in the village centre.

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