National Civic Day 23rd June 2012

National Civic Day this year will be on Saturday 23rd June.  As part of the celebrations Marple Civic Society will be taking part in a "national civic pride survey" called Civicwatch organised by Civic Voice, the new national charity for the civic movement.    

Civic Voice is campaigning to re-awaken the nation's consciousness to the importance of being "civic".  Being civic is about being active in your local area, be it by voting on election day, campaigning to stop innapropriate developments or signing a petition.  Civicwatch is the civic movement's annual contribution to finding out how "civic" and how proud we all are of where we live - our towns, villages and cities.  The results from Civicwatch are used locally by each civic group and by Civic Voice to capture the "state of the civic nation".

Civicwatch is a "3 question survey" conducted annually on Civic Day.

Civicwatch will ask:

1. Are you proud of where you live?

2. Do you feel part of your local community?

3. Do you feel as though your voice is listened to?

Local civic societies will invite people during Civic Day to fill in the survey and then use the results to produce a local picture of "civicness" in their area.  Civic Voice will analyse the results on a national level and prepare the national publicity.

  

Civic Society members and friends will be out in Marple on Civic day asking people to complete the survey.  However anyone can take part by completing the survey on-line by clicking on the link below:  

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2ZYNPZQ                       

N.B. The survey is anonymous just leave the name box empty. 

Don't forget to click on the "Done" button after completing the survey.

ASDA - Pre-Planning Consultation

Following a question at Marple Area Committee last Wednesday, we now know that ASDA have started Pre-Planning Application discussions with Stockport MBC Planning Department. Prospective developers are permitted to seek advice from the Council before submitting an application in order to:

• Understand how policies and guidance will be applied to the development 
• Identify at an early stage where there is a need for specialist input,
• Save money in working up proposals, identifying potential problems and sorting them our before an application is submitted (this quickens up the planning application process)
• Indicate if a planning proposal is completely unacceptable.

ASDA may have gone quiet but they certainly have not gone away. Lets hope that when Stockport MBC tell them that a supermarket on Hibbert Lane is unacceptable because it contravenes planning policy, ASDA decide not to pursue their application.

Chadwick Street Supermarket Development

At the Marple Area Committee (MAC) meeting last Wednesday, the chair announced that the Council’s Executive had selected Kirkland Developments as preferred developer for the Chadwick Street car park site.  Regeneration Manager, Ian Harrison, distributed a short summary document and answered questions from councillors and from the floor.

The main points can be seen here in the latest Civic Society report on MAC.

Cllr. Ingham recognised that this is of concern and interest to Marple residents and promised significant consultation.

Toll House 'Building at Risk' Update

Since the Toll House was added to the Save Britains Heritage 'Building at Risk' register, the Stockport Express has run a feature about it.  See article here.  
It may be entirely coincidental, but BW have recently been seen inspecting the Toll House.  A Society Committee member was told that "repair works would be needed to roofs and chimneys, and outside woodwork (windows, fascias, doors, etc) would be re-painted".  He was also told that "this is all part of the routine maintenance works carried out on BW buildings which are not currently in use". 
                                                                                  

Toll House at Marple Wharf

Marple Wharf Update

British Waterways Development Manager Jeremy Harrison contacted the Civic Society in April this year with a view to arranging a meeting.  After two years of silence this was, to us, an interesting development.  Unfortunately we have not heard from him since then.  

The Stockport Express (see article here) recently reported that Mr. Harrison said BW and H2O Urban still aspire to develop the wharf and bring it back into "sustainable" use, whatever that means!  In the past, during our conversations with BW this has meant the development of houses at the Wharf.


However, he is also reported as saying that boating facilities and retention of the New Horizons charity boat will be included in any development of the wharf. Whilst we welcome this change to the original proposal we will have to see what this means in practice, for example where will the boating facilities be located and will New Horizons retain 'their' yard? 

We believe that a planning application may be imminent and if so we would expect BW to begin a pre-planning application public consultation process soon.


In the meantime, Marple Wharf is deteriorating and several members have written to us expressing concern about this.  The wharf is suffering from vandalism, rubbish and lack of maintenance.  One of our committee members recently spoke to a member of BW's staff at the Wharf.  Click here to read a summary of the conversation.   

Vandalism to warehouse steps 

       

Rubbish at Marple Wharf

         
     
More photos here


                                                    

Marple Area Committee Report 6th June 2012

A report on the Marple Area Committee meeting which took place on the 6th June 2012 can be viewed here

For past reports see 'Marple Area Committee Reports' under NEWS ITEMS