To consider a report of the Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration.

1. That the Sale Moor and Hale Place Plans be approved.

2. That the Action Plans for Sale Moor and Hale be approved and that the measures identified to improve both District Centres be explored.

3. That the main improvement areas identified in the Sale Moor and Hale Place Plans be agreed.

The Executive Member for Housing and Regenerationsubmitted a report which presented for approval the Sale Moor and Hale Place Plans, which had been developed with the involvement of the local community, businesses and stakeholders and which identified opportunities to improve both centres for those who live, work, visit and spend time there. The Place Plans would assist in ensuring both centres met their full potential and support the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic; and would be a material consideration in the determination of planning applications in the centres and will sit alongside the Council’s Core Strategy and support preparation and delivery of the emerging Trafford Local Plan.

As reported earlier in these Minutes (Minute 153 refers), four public questions had been received in relation to this item; and the discussion commenced with the Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration and the Leader of the Council responding to those questions, as set out below.

Response to Question 3:

Point 1: The crossing points on Stamford New Road were completed in Spring 2017. Following implementation of these crossings, there were some initial enquiries relating to how they worked but since then there have been no enquiries received by the Council’s Highways team in relation to the crossings. The Council are also not aware of any injuries or accidents relating to anyone using the crossings and notes that they have resulted in a slight reduction in vehicle speed on Stamford New Road. The crossing proposed in Hale would not necessarily be designed in the same way as those on Stamford New Road and would be subject to a full and detailed design process, including assessment of their impact and compliance with all relevant standards.

Point 2: As part of the process of preparing the Plan, the option of providing a segregated cycle lane was explored and a number of possibilities in regards to cycling facilities have been discussed with the local community and key stakeholders in the area. However, in order to ensure that we retain the same number of parking spaces in the centre of Hale (which is one of the key messages the team heard from some of the local community and businesses), to ensure that pavements are wide enough and safe for people walking around the centre and to ensure that businesses have enough space to have seating outdoors to enable to comply with social distancing, at present, a dedicated cycle lane would not be feasible. A number of safe and appropriate cycling facilities are considered appropriate in the Plan such as those included as part of the Parklet idea on Page 52 of the Place Plan, and additional cycle parking facilities.

Point 3: As related to the previous agenda items on the Trafford Climate Emergency Progress Report and Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Plan, the Council is committed to ensuring that any development proposed will support Trafford in reducing its carbon emissions to meet Climate Emergency, GM and Government targets and commitments on carbon neutrality. Any future formal, detailed schemes which follow on from the Place Plans will need to adhere to the Council’s adopted polices in this regard. The Place Plans will help deliver the Council’s climate change / low carbon agenda by supporting more sustainable modes of travel, better use of existing land resource and promotion of development in sustainable urban locations.

Response To Questions 1, 2 & 4:

A summary of the responses made by Executive Members at the meeting and the factors on which they were based are set out below.

Hale:

The Hale Place Plan commenced in July 2019. From the very beginning, we have striven to ensure that the process in preparing the Plan is inclusive. We are confident that we achieved a collective response from all members of the local community. The consultant team, led by Nexus Planning, produced an Engagement Strategy detailing how and when people would be consulted with regard to formulating proposals and considering what the overall Vision and Objectives were from the outset. Overall, the aim was to have a Plan in place that would make Hale a great place to visit, for businesses to thrive and to improve movement in and around the centre. In respect of a timeline of engagement, the following should be noted:

August 2019

·         Press release issued asking for people’s views on what they wanted Hale to look like in the future and asked local people to identify issues and opportunities.

·         Letters were written and hand delivered to individual businesses in Hale in order to promote the consultation and ensure their involvement.

·         Local ward members were invited to a meeting at The Mercure Hotel, Wednesday 3rd July to brief them on the nature and scope of work being undertaken.

·         The initial consultation period ran from 8th August to 20th September 2019 and surveys were publicised via online sources, the Council’s website and social media accounts, circulation by local community groups and organisations and through hand-delivery within the village itself.

·         In total, 516 local community surveys were completed in Hale from both the businesses and residents. This large number of responses was attributed to the efforts of all involved in publicising the consultation to ensure as many people as possible were aware of it. An explanation has been provided in the report as to why it appears there were a low number of business responses. Many businesses told us they completed the resident survey instead – and this was explained to Denise Laver at the time.

·         As car parking had been raised as a possible issue early on, a car parking survey was instructed and undertaken by WSP consultants.

October/November 2019

·         Throughout October and November, Council officers and the consultant team held meetings with stakeholders including the owner of the Ashley Hotel, Forward Property Group and other key stakeholders. In addition, Nexus Planning and Council officers had approximately 20 telephone conversations with Denise Laver on behalf of the Hale Civic Society to discuss any concerns she had with the Plan which from what we could see were mainly related to parking.

·         A number of stakeholders were identified which included residents, local businesses and organisations along with members from Hale Central and adjoining wards. These identified stakeholders were invited to a meeting at the Bowling Club in Hale on 20/10/19 to go through some of the findings of the initial consultation work and to discuss some of the early thought around what the Plan might include. Attendees at the event included ward local ward Councillors, business and organisations including Denise Laver on behalf of the Hale Civic Society.

January/February 2020

·         A public consultation on the draft Place Plan for Hale was undertaken between 14th January and 11th February.

·         A permanent exhibition space was set up in Hale Library including boards and hard copies which were replenished regularly.

·         A survey was publicised locally digitally and in person asking for people’s views on the draft proposals and findings of the consultation so far. There were 132 responses to the survey in total.

·         A special exhibition event was hosted on Saturday 1st February at Hale Bowling Club. The event was publicised via social media, Council website and posters were put up in public places and a number of local businesses in Hale. There were approximately 100 attendees.  

September 2020

Final Place Plans issued to all stakeholders and ward members for information only ahead of Executive on 28 September.

The draft Place Plans contained options for proposals around the clock tower, Ashley Road and the bowling Club. Preferred options for some proposals including the clock tower and bowling green have been included in the final Place Plans which have been amended and developed in light of comments arising at the consultation stage. However, having a vision and plan in place is the first step to attracting both the public and private investment necessary to deliver elements of the Place Plan for Hale.

Sale Moor:

With regard to suggestion that the Council has not allowed any consultation on the Sale Moor Place Plan, this is demonstrably not the case and indeed Mr. Jojo himself attended one such consultation event. Mr. Jojo was clearly aware of this event in order to attend it and engaged in the process in the admittedly somewhat less than constructive way in which he did, from feedback received from officers and Councillors present; I do not see how it can possibly be argued that the Council failed to warn, advise, inform or allow input into the Plan and I particularly object to the suggestion that this has been dealt with in an underhanded way, as per Mr. Jojo’s comments in his question.

In the Sale Moor consultation we went above and beyond that originally planned in terms of engagement with the community with additional weekend meetings to increase awareness. Businesses had letters hand delivered to them to make them aware and posters were put up in a number of units in the village. The initial consultation yielded 317 responses from the community. Further consultation was held on 1st February at Sale Moor Methodist Church, attended by more than 300 people, again suggesting a reasonably high level of awareness. As with the Hale Place Plan, all identified stakeholders were sent a copy of the final plan in advance of this meeting, so again I would reject Mr. Jojo’s assertion that this has been dealt with in an underhand way, or indeed in some sort of covert action.

Overall I am confident that the process followed throughout has been robust in the case of both of these plans and I would like to thank the officers involved in this work, in particular Damien Cutting. With specific reference to the suggestion within Mr. Clark’s question that this has been a somehow undemocratic process, we have not only followed the usual democratic route for this decision making within the Council on this item, but have done so after extensive public consultation, engaging with hundreds of local residents and stakeholders. I reject the suggestion therefore that this is undemocratic or indeed that communities of Hale and Sale Moor have been ignored simply because some within the community do not agree with the content of the plans. No plan such as this would ever carry 100% of support in the locality concerned but this does not in any way mean that the views of the community have not been taken into consideration; and indeed we can clearly evidence where this has happened within the final versions that sit before Members this evening.  That concludes the response to the public questions.

An opportunity was then provided for Members to discuss issues arising from the report; and discussion centred on the subjects referred to in the public questions. These were in particular perceptions of the sufficiency of consultation undertaken and its impact on the proposals now presented; the timing of the decision; and a range of traffic-related queries on the Sale Moor plan. On the latter point, it was agreed that the Council’s Traffic team would respond in detail outside the meeting. Members were advised of correspondence relating to a potential legal challenge; and that the Monitoring Officer had been consulted on the matter and took the view that proceeding to a decision would be a robust and lawful course of action.

            RESOLVED -

(1)       That the Sale Moor and Hale Place Plans be approved.

(2)       That the Action Plans for Sale Moor and Hale be approved and that the measures identified to improve both District Centres be explored.

(3)       That the main improvement areas identified in the Sale Moor and Hale Place Plans be agreed.