Latest News (as published on the MiA web site)

[MIA]

8 FEBRUARY 2013 - MARPLE COUNCILLORS REJECT ASDA PLANNING APPLICATION

At another packed Marple Area Committee meeting last night, Marple councillors wholeheartedly rejected ASDA's planning application to build a supermarket on Hibbert Lane. Speakers from Marple in Action and the Co-Op spoke against the plan, and were applauded by the audience, whereas ASDA's spokesmen met a stony silence when they defended the scheme.

Councillors Alexander, Candler, and Wright had already spoken against the ASDA plan so withdrew from the meeting, leaving Councillors Ingham, Bispham and Dowling to take the advice of the Planning Officer and vote unanimously against the planning application.

The plan now goes on to be heard at the Stockport Planning and Highways Committee hearing at Stockport County FC, Edgeley Park, Stockport at 6pm on Friday 1st March. We need as many MIA supporters as possible to attend, to reinforce the opposition to this development to Councillors in Stockport.

Anyone needing a lift to Stockport on Friday please contact Marple in Action using info@marple-in-action.org.uk leaving your name, address and a contact telephone number and someone will get back to you to arrange.

[MIA]

22 FEBRUARY 2013 - Planning and Highways Extraordinary Meeting - CHANGE OF VENUE

The decisive planning meeting called to hear the ASDA and KIRKLAND planning applications is being held at 6pm on Friday 1st March at:

TNT 2 SUITE, STOCKPORT COUNTY FOOTBALL CLUB, HARDCASTLE ROAD, STOCKPORT SK3 9DD.

This is changed from Stockport Town Hall.

This Committee, made up of Councillors from all over Stockport, will hear the full reports from Stockport's planning officers, updated to include the late submissions by ASDA, and grant or refuse planning permission. The agenda is now on Stockport SMBC's website at the following link:

http://democracy.stockport.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=150&MId=5448&Ver=4

Although the Committee are recommended to refuse the ASDA application, and approve the Kirkland one, it is important that we show that Marple doesn't want an ASDA store on Hibbert Lane by attending the meeting and supporting a refusal of their application.

MARPLE AREA COMMITTEE MEETING – many people thought ASDA were playing "dirty tricks" when they submitted last minute information and asked for a deferral at the Area Committee meeting on the 6th February. The hearing of the ASDA planning application will now take place on Wednesday 27th February ( ie next week ), again at Marple Cricket Club starting at 6pm. Opponents to their application including Marple in Action will be speaking at the meeting and supporters are again urged to attend.

You may feel you suffering from "meeting fatigue" but this is the biggest threat to the future of the Marple we know and love, so please come.

Next Wednesday - 6pm Marple Cricket Club

Next Friday - 6pm Stockport County FC

[MIA]

12 FEBRUARY 2013 - DECISION AT NEXT AREA COMMITTEE – DEFINITELY!

ASDA's last minute information in support of their planning application for a Hibbert Lane supermarket caused the Marple Area Committee to defer a decision at last weeks meeting. However we are assured that a decision by the three neutral councillors will definitely be made at the meeting on the 27th February. It will be held as before, at Marple Cricket Club and will start at 6pm. Please attend!

Despite the frustration at the meeting on the 6th, it is very important that members of the Marple community who don't want an ASDA on Hibbert Lane, attend again to show the Area Committee that the opposition of their constituents is as strong as ever.

This decision will be vital as just two days later, on the 1st March, the ASDA application, along with the Kirkland one for Chadwick Street, is due to be heard by the Stockport Planning and Highways Committee at Stockport Town Hall. This meeting will start at 6pm and members of the public are encouraged to attend.

[MIA]

7 FEBRUARY 2013 - SHOCK AT AREA COMMITTEE!

A huge turnout of local people opposed to an ASDA on Hibbert Lane crowded into Marple Cricket Club last night (Wednesday) expecting to hear local councillors recommend refusal of the planning application in accordance with Stockport Planning Officers' advice.

Instead they listened in stunned disbelief as it was announced that Asda had just forwarded further information to support their planning application. Despite a very lengthy consultation and report process, Asda, by their last minute submission, forced the Area Committee to defer the hearing to a later date to allow Councillors and officers sufficient time to consider this extra information

MIA fears that these delaying tactics can only be intended to frustrate our local democratic process, and it further illustrates the cynical contempt that Asda have shown towards the people of Marple.

Our heartfelt concerns for local residents, local businesses and the future viability of our town centre are of no importance to their ruthless determination to build a supermarket, against all local planning rules, outside the town centre on Hibbert Lane.

The application by Kirkland Developments to build a supermarket on the Chadwick Street car park was however heard by the Councillors, and was unanimously approved by the Committee and applauded by the meeting.

It is now expected that the ASDA planning application will be heard at the next Area Committee meeting on 27th February 2013.

[MIA]

3 FEBRUARY 2013 - Marple in Action Newsletter

Download the latest news: http://www.marple-in-action.org.uk/MiA-newsletter8.pdf

[MIA]

31 JANUARY 2013 - ASDA Planning Application: Stockport Planners SAY 'NO'

They say: "It is recommended that planning permission be refused for the reasons outlined in this report."

Recommended Decision: REFUSE

http://democracy.stockport.gov.uk/documents/s25154/report.pdf

[MIA]

14 JANUARY 2013 - Special Marple Area Committee meets 6 February 2013

Marple Area Committee will be holding a special meeting to consider the planning application by ASDA to build a supermarket on Hibbert Lane.

It will be held on Wednesday 6 February 2013 at Marple Cricket Club, Bowden Lane, Marple SK6 6LJ and will start at 6pm.

The decision made at this meeting will be very important to the future of Marple and a large attendance is expected.

This is your opportunity to show the Councillors who remain neutral on the issue of a Hibbert Lane supermarket, that the majority of people in Marple oppose that development.

The planning application by Kirkland Developments to build on the Chadwick Street car park is also to be considered at the meeting and any recommendation from the Area Committee will carry considerable weight when both these applications go before the Stockport Planning and Highways Committee.

[MIA]

11 JANUARY 2013 - WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Marple & Cheadle Sixth Form College and ASDA

The planning application will be taken to Marple Area Committee for consideration and recommendation.

Due to the scale of the application and the fact that it is a departure from policy, it must be taken to the Planning and Highways Regulatory Committee (PHRC) for a final decision.

If the committee approves the application, the Council would need to refer the decision to the Government’s Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) because it exceeds the scale at which local authorities are able to determine departures from policy. CLG would have 21 days to decide whether to agree with the decision or whether to call it in.

If CLG did decide to call the application in, the timescale for any resolution would be significantly extended.

If PHRC refuses the application, then no referral to CLG will be required.

Chadwick Street

The planning application will be taken to Marple Area Committee for consideration and recommendation.

Due to the scale (floorspace) of the application, it will be taken to PHRC for a final decision.

The application is not a departure from policy and would not be referred to CLG.

[admin]

22 DECEMBER 2012 - Campaigners fighting plans to build an ASDA superstore on college land in Marple handed their protest dossier to Stockport Town Hall officials on Friday.

Marple In Action delivered a protest petition containing over 8,200 signatures and a detailed letter of objection to the plans. Stockport Council have received numerous letters of objection from concerned residents. These will be taken into account by Councillors and planning officials at an Area Committee meeting in the New Year and at a Planning and Highways Committee meeting in February.

Pictured handing in the petition are Marple in Action chairman David Hoyle and vice chairman Mick McPhee.

After Marple in Action’s protest dossier was accepted at the town hall, David Hoyle said: “There has been overwhelming opposition from local people to these plans to replace the sixth form college on Hibbert Lane with a large supermarket. So many people have expressed their anger by writing letters of objection and submitting online objections to the council.

“Marple Councillors, Wright, Alexander and Candler have already publicly pledged to fight the proposal as has local MP Andrew Stunnell. We now urge all councillors and planning officials involved in the decision making process to take heed of this massive show of opposition from local people and throw out the proposal.”

[admin]

21 December 2012 - DID YOU SIGN THE PETITION?

Over 8,000 did – but that's not the same as making a FORMAL OBJECTION.

Please follow this link and let the Council and the Planners know that you want ASDA's application to be rejected by both the Marple Area Committee and Stockport Council's Planning Committee.

PLEASE SUBMIT A FORMAL OBJECTION!

http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=e2380cf72dc696edb4f918eaf&id=eda09afab7&e

[admin]

20 December 2012 - NOT a MARPLE in ACTION LEAFLET!

The leaflet "Act NOW to Block Asda" distributed yesterday did not come from Marple in Action and is factually incorrect.

Objections can be submitted on line via the links in yesterday's post up to and including Christmas Eve, 24th December. If you haven't done so, do it now as every objection counts.

Please also ask your family, friends and colleagues to submit their objections.

[admin]

YOU HAVE UNTIL 24 DECEMBER TO OBJECT TO ASDA
Objections now have to done on-line at the Council website – follow this link:

http://planning.stockport.gov.uk/PlanningData/AcolNetCGI.gov?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeResultDetail&TheSystemkey=116256

And following the instructions:

http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=e2380cf72dc696edb4f918eaf&id=eda09afab7&e=

[admin]

OBJECTING TO ASDA’S PLANNING APPLICATION

ASDA has now submitted its plans for a supermarket and petrol station on the Hibbert Lane site of Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College. The plans been published as application DC0513 on the Council website. You can see them at:

http://interactive.stockport.gov.uk/edrms/onlinemvm/mvmedrms.asp?DCNumber=DC051300.

You have 21 days in which to file objections, and it is very important to have as many separate letters or emails of objection as possible. Sending an email or letter of objection is the most important thing you can do to help stop ASDA. Objections must be sent before the consultation period expires on the 21st of December.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO OBJECT TO ALL OF THE APPLICATION:

The ASDA plans have been made together with the College’s application to redevelop the Buxton Lane site. However, you can object to any part of a planning application. Therefore you can object to only the supermarket, or only the Buxton Lane proposal, or to both.

HOW TO OBJECT:

It is important to make your objections personal to you - individual objections expressed in your own words are taken more seriously – identical objection letters are treated as a single objection. Our planning advisors have made a list of possible grounds for rejecting the ASDA part of the planning application. These can be downloaded by clicking here:

‘ASDA grounds and guidance for objection’.
http://www.marple-in-action.org.uk/ASDA-grounds-and-guidance-for-objection.pdf

Use ideas from this list, but please express them in your own way. Above all avoid just ‘cutting and pasting’.

The address for sending letters of objection is:

Planning Services,
Place Directorate,
Stopford House,
Piccadilly,
Stockport,
SK1 3XE

HELP WITH OBJECTING (BY LETTER):

You can send an objection letter to the council planning office by normal post to the address given above.

If you would like help then a template for a letter of objection can be downloaded by clicking here:

‘ASDA letter of objection’.
http://www.marple-in-action.org.uk/ASDA-letter-of-objection.pdf

If you use this template, it is very important to make it personal to you by editing it and adding your own thoughts in the section at the end. Identical emails of objection carry little weight and are likely to considered together as a single objection.

HELP WITH OBJECTING (BY EMAIL):

The Council web site asks you to submit comments by email if possible. If you would like help, then a template for an objection email can be downloaded by clicking here:

‘ASDA email of objection’.
http://www.marple-in-action.org.uk/ASDA-email-of-objection.pdf

If you use this template, it is very important to make it personal to you by editing it and adding your own thoughts in the section at the end. Identical emails of objection carry little weight and are likely to considered together as a single objection.

HELP WITH OBJECTING (IN PERSON):

Marple in Action volunteers will be in Marple Precinct on Saturday 8th and Saturday 15th December. They will be able to help people who have questions about the proposal or would like help with the objection process. The volunteers will have printed versions of the grounds for objection and the letter template. They can also deliver your letter for you to the Stockport Planning Department if you wish it.

[admin]

15 October 2012 - Complaints About the College Principal and Governors

Complaints About the College Principal and Governors : There is now a way to register complaints about the actions and conduct of the Principal and Governors. Previously the complaints procedure for Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College explicitly excluded these people. However, after action by MIA and the Education Funding Authority, the College have at last changed their complaints procedure.

To find out how to use the new complaints mechanism go to the College website page:

www.camsfc.ac.uk/cmsfc-about.asp?aboID=106

[admin]

11 October 2012 - A statement regarding Chadwick Street 

The sole aim of Marple in Action has not changed since our campaigning group was formed more than 12 months ago. As stated at the top of our Facebook page: "Marple in Action is a group formed in response to the threat of a proposed giant supermarket opening on Hibbert Lane". We do NOT have any other objectives. As a group we do not hold a view on whether or not a supermarket should be built on Chadwick Street.

Many people though have asked us for information on Chadwick Street, and we have offered that which is publicly available - but it's up to Kirkland Developments at their public consultation to explain their plans. It's then up to the people of Marple to express their views to their elected representatives in anticipation of a planning application.