Workshop to Develop a Plan for Marple Wharf

 


Kerry, Rob, Di and Frank get to grips with Marple Wharf





A heritage architect and urban designer from the GlassHouse Community Led Design travelled from London to deliver the third and final workshop to help us to move forward to a planning stage for Marple Wharf. Our Patron Andrew Stunell MP, who is a minister in the Department of Communities and Local Government, opened the workshop and gave his support for the work we are doing at the Wharf to develop an alternative community plan to British Waterway's proposal for houses.

 


Workshop in action

  Now that BW has secured a healthy financial settlement from the government and they move forward to charitable status to become The Canal & River Trust, surely they will want to preserve Marple Wharf as a tourist destination to attract visitors, volunteers and donations. Building houses at the wharf won't do that but celebrating its history and heritage and capitalising on its potential for recreation and leisure surely will. 



The Society's Patron, Andrew Stunell MP, Opens the Workshop

              

Study Tour to Hollingwood-Hub Chesterfield

       


Locks at The Hollingwood-Hub

 

A party of 15 boarded a mini bus on Sunday and headed off to the Hollingwood-Hub in Chesterfield. The sun shone, the welcome was wonderful and the lunch superb, especially Nona's scones!

But it wasn't all play, we were their as part of a government funded scheme to help us to develop Marple Wharf. Although at first, the Hollingwood-Hub project seemed very different to what we face at Marple Wharf it was soon apparent that we faced similar problems of forming appropriate partnerships, funding issues and attracting voluntary helpers.

We benefited greatly from the experience and expertise of Robin and Geraint from the Chesterfield Canal Trust and came away much enlightened. We were buzzing on the journey back home and all agreed it was a very worthwhile trip leaving us with much to think about.

We are now looking forward to the 2nd workshop, with Maja and a Heritage Architect from The GlassHouse Community Led Design, to build a model and develop a community based plan for Marple Wharf

Discussing issues of Marple Wharf with Dr Geraint Cole

The Study Tour at the Hollingwood-Hub began with a presentation by the Trustees

                                          

Youth Project with All Saint's Church

                                                Get Out & Love Marple

Craig Silcock, a Youth Worker based at All Saint's Church, is organising a three day community event on 12th, 13th and 14th April to give young people the opportunity to help others in their community.

Criag is working with local schools and businesses to carry out a wide range of projects from litter picks and grass cutting to dog walking and house cleaning.

To help identify potential projects Alan Postill of the Civic Society met with Craig and introduced him to Alan Whitfield, Stockport MBC Area Conditions Officer.

Several potential projects were identified during a short "Town Audit" including a clean up at All Saint's Well, bench painting at Hawk Green and a possible paint job at the skate park.

Alan Whitfield was, as ever, very helpful and a mine of information for council contacts, processes and procedures.

Great idea Craig! - good luck with the projects. 

Mapping Workshop - one of three events working on Marple Wharf

The Glass-House Community Led Design facilitated a mapping workshop as part of a proactive approach to move forward with Marple Wharf. This was funded by a grant from Locality UK. Members of community groups representing heritage, canoeing and boating were present along with Council Officers and  Local Councillors. Eight students from Marple Hall School also took part and added fresh ideas and showed a strong sense of Civic Pride in Marple.

This workshop is one of three events. We will be visiting the Hollinwood-Hub project in Chesterfield to pick up some tips on their successful canal project in partnership with Derbyshire Councty Council. The focus of the 2nd workshop on 17th March is to build a model of Marple Wharf to test out various ideas for the site with the aim of developing a plan for Marple Wharf.

 

        

Annual General Meeting - 24 April 2012

Annual General Meeting
 Tuesday 24 April 2012 at 3.00 p.m. Marple Library (upstairs room)

The business of the AGM will be followed by a talk by Andrew Suggitt who is an ecologist from the University of York.  He will be talking about how climate change will affect how we design, maintain and plan our towns and public spaces. How can we adapt our townscapes to protect vulnerable groups from the warming to come? What threats or opportunities might it offer for our heritage? These are some of the questions that planners are already having to tackle, and they need our help!

                    Please come along and support the Society
                             Members of the public welcome

Newsletter - February 2012

The February newsletter is now available and can be viewed in the 'Brief Summary' section under 'Newsletter'