These are draft minutes that have not yet been approved by the council. The minutes are subject to change and will be confirmed at the next meeting.
ET24/059 PRESENT
Councillors Mears, Johnson, Lowe, McCulloch, Robertson and Watson
A Keppel-Green (Town Clerk)
ET24/060 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were received from Cllrs Banks and Russell (personal business).
ET24/061 DECLARATIONS OF MEMBERS’ INTERESTS
Cllr Watson declared a personal interest in ET24/068 as the council’s representative on Friends of the Heath.
ET24/062 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
A resident thanked the council for its support of the plastic free campaign and highlighted a planned litterpick at Longridge on the upcoming Sunday.
A resident enquired whether the committee had the responsibility of dealing with environmental issues arising from planning policy changes and it was explained that the Planning Committee deals with policy and applications, whilst this committee has a remit for any local projects that tackle any arising issues. The resident further enquired about tree felling and planting, and it was explained that there is a limited ability to restrict felling beyond protected trees.
Cllr Robertson arrived during this item.
ET24/063CONFIRMATION OF PREVIOUS MINUTES
It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 27th January.
ET24/064 REVIEW OF YEAR TO DATE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
The committee income and expenditure year-to-date was noted.
ET24/065 BUS STOP INFRASTRUCTURE SURVEY
The committee expressed its thanks to Jessica Hine for her work undertaking the survey of the bus stops. The bus stop infrastructure survey report was noted.
It was RESOLVED to approve the arising actions detailed in report ET-24-20, with an amendment to action two to refer to ‘considering’ using town ranger resource depending on the scale of work required.
ET24/066 UNREGISTERED FOOTPATHS
It was noted that the survey had not included paths across fields surrounding the built up area. It was RESOLVED to:
- progress DMMO applications for the routes highlighted, with the Town Clerk determining a priority order informed by a poll of members
- include the lost path from Heathfield Square
- recommend to the Assets and Operations Committee that it dedicate the path to the rear of the Council Offices as a public right of way.
ET24/067 SPARROW LANE LIGHTING
It was RESOLVED to progress a scheme for the lighting of Sparrow Lane by commissioning Cheshire East Highways to develop a design and that CIL funding be sought for this work.
ET24/068GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR EVENTS ON THE HEATH AGREEMENT
Cllr Watson reported that Friends of the Heath had requested a number of amendments to the document. It was requested that the document provide additional information on the subsidy provided by the owner to the management costs and additional information be provided on the current status of the ownership of the land.
The committee expressed support for the concept of the document, but requested a final version be submitted before approval could be given to signing.
ET24/069STRATEGIC PLAN
Progress on actions in the current year action plan was noted and it was noted that the active travel working group needed to meet to progress the development of an active travel infrastructure plan.
ET24/070OUTSTANDING MATTERS LOG
The log was noted. It was agreed to remove items that were referred to Cheshire East councillors and the Town Clerk undertook to determine how to incorporate outstanding actions from agreed strategies such as the Nature Action Plan.
ET24/071QUESTIONS TO THE CLERK
The Town Clerk responded to questions advising that he would include an item on the next agenda regarding town centre bins, that a replacement for the King Charles III tree was being investigated, that he would look into the ownership of an unemptied bin behind Boots and that he would raise the desire to investigate on street parking changes in Gaskell Avenue with CEC ward councillors.
ET24/072 DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING
It was noted that the next scheduled meeting would be held on 9th June 2025 at 7:30pm.