There is no guarantee anywhere that if the planning application is approved, that the college can't just collect the money and then bugger off to Cheadle.
No guarantee, but as I have pointed out before on this forum this is so unlikely that it can safely be discounted. This is because closure of its entire Marple operation would lead to an immediate and significant reduction in the college's student numbers, and therefore income. In theory, of course, Marple students could travel to Cheadle - but many (probably most) simply won't. They will vote with their feet and go to Aquinas (if they can get in), or Stockport College, or New Mills School, or get on the train and go in to Manchester.
Councils' can't just turn things down without good reason and imho good reason is diminishing as each day goes by..... I can't really see what can be done to realistically oppose the scheme.
I wish you were right, Simone, but we can't be so sure. AFAIK the Hibbert Lane site remains zoned for residential use, not retail, and that must surely count as a 'good reason'. And as for this:
There will be many who are against a stand alone greedy supermarket but who would accept it as a reasonable price to pay for a brand new College secured to Marple for the forseeable future with all the benefits that this brings to Marple.....this is something that SMBC is going to find very difficult to reject.
That may be so - once again, I would like to think so - but I see no evidence of that point of view being held by any of our councillors or by our MP. I have had some communication with some of them on this subject, and I have been quite shocked by their 'couldn't care less' position on the college's plans to improve its facilities for the benefit of their constituents. For what it's worth, I suspect that this is not so much because they don't care about education, but more because they have been spineless, and cowed by the noisy campaign waged by MIA and its supporters.
