Agenda item

In accordance the Council Procedural Rules, a total period of 30 minutes is allocated for members of the public to speak at Council meetings. Individual members of the public may speak for up to 2 minutes, but the Chair will have discretion to vary this requirement where they consider it appropriate. 

Members of the public wishing to speak are required to provide notice of this at least three clear working days’ in advance of the meeting and should include the question with that notice.  Requests to speak and questions should be submitted via the Register to Speak form.

Petitions - To receive any petitions which have met the criteria - Petitions Scheme Criteria, and falls within the remit of the Committee. Petition organisers will be allowed up to three minutes to speak.

The Mayor stated that he had decided that the public speakers wishing to speak in relation to the Notice of Motion on Housing Targets would be invited to speak when that item was considered.

Mr Robert Douglas expressed his concern about the loss of detailed Pay-by-Phone car park income data due to a system change and asked if procedures were now in place to ensure that data would not be lost whenever there was any updating or swapping of I.T. systems.  Mr Douglas asked whether the impact on footfall in Congleton was due to the increase in car parking charges.  He referred to the public consultation on extending car parking charges and stated the results of this had not been discussed at the committee and was enacted via delegated authority. He asked that this be not repeated.

In response Cllr Goldsmith, Chair of Highways and Transport Committee, stated that access to real time and historic data from Pay-by-Phone was lost when the Council changed supplier to Ring Go, following a competitive procurement process.  The provisions for access to information at the end of this contract had been defined in contract documents, following advice from ICT officers. 

The decision to introduce evening and Sunday charging was made in January 2024. The public consultation in August 2024 was therefore only to review operational matters, such as maximum times of stay at car parks. The consultation was not intended to be a review of the January decision. As these changes were operational matters, they would not be discussed by the Highways and Transport Committee, which focused on strategy.

Cllr Goldsmith stated that regarding the Town Centre footfall in Congleton, this was recorded by a company called Visitor Insights, which tracked the total number of connections to local mobile phone masts to track visitor numbers. Cllr Goldsmith undertook to forward the data for Congleton to Mr Douglas. Cllr Goldsmith reported that this data was obtained for all towns in Cheshire East and encouraged other councillors to seek out the data because it was very informative.

Cllr Goldsmith reported that the data for Congleton showed that from July 2024 onwards there was a footfall increase every year vs the corresponding month in 2023. This increase ranged from 5% to 27%, the latter being over the key Christmas retail period. Therefore, there was no adverse effect on footfall.  Additionally, the data showed that council car parks in Congleton were visited +2% between June 2024 and June 2025.

Cllr Goldsmith stated that In January 2024 the Highways and Transport Committee gave authorisation to officers to review and change parking charges depending on inflation and other relevant factors. This is to ensure any changes were conducted in a timely and efficient manner.   He stated that no one liked price rises but inflation was a fact of life, and this had to be acknowledged and acted on accordingly. He, therefore, did not expect this procedure to change in future years, where car park tariffs would be reviewed by officers alongside other council fees and charges. 

Ms Sue Helliwell asked if this Council could pass on her thanks to all involved in the Linley Road appeal in Alsager as the planning inspectorate had turned down the appeal on the grounds of Cheshire East Council Good Design Guide and stated that this proved beyond reasonable doubt that the design guide document was a fantastic document.  Ms Helliwell thanked all involved in writing this document and Councillors for voting in support of it.   She asked if the Protected Open Space land at Linley Road would be maintained by Cheshire East Council.  She asked what was the latest information on the Cheshire East Local Plan and when residents would know what the call for sites would be, and what were the timings for the Local Plan go out to public consultation.

In response Cllr H Seddon, Vice Chair of Environment and Communities Committee, thanked Ms Helliwell for recognising the hard work of the officers, and for her support of the Cheshire East Design Guide and stated that the Council had put great weight on ensuring that new developments were of a high design quality, adhered to strong environmental guidelines and a had a focus on place making.  It was encouraging that the Planning Inspector took account of these principles in rejecting the recent appeal. 

Cllr Seddon stated that the Council would continue to maintain the Linley Road public open space in accordance with the current grounds maintenance policy and the designated classification of the area.  

Cllr Seddon stated that the Council was progressing work on a new Local Plan under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, as outlined in the Local Development Scheme 2025-26 and whilst the Council awaited national regulations and policy guidance, expected later this year, was intensifying project planning and undertaking preparatory work, including an initial assessment of sites submitted through the ‘Call for Sites’ process from last year. These sites would be published in due course as part of the Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment which did not confer any planning status but formed part of the evidence base. It was anticipated that the new regulations would introduce mandatory consultation events, and the Local Development Scheme would be updated accordingly. Residents would be kept informed as the process developed and consultation opportunities are confirmed. 

Mr Stuart Redgard asked how the Council complied with the Public Sector Equality Duty with regard to planning applications.  He stated that he had looked earnestly and could not find any evidence whatsoever that it did.  He referred to a development in Wilmslow which had now been completed and stated that here was no access for people with disabilities on the public footpath through the site. 

Cllr H Seddon, Vice Chair of the Environment and Communities Committee undertook to provide a written response.