So in a nutshell no further progress, politician after politician promises to take decisive action but it is all talk with no action, I am sure there is a complex process to sort it out but all that proves is the our ‘local’ MP actually has no power to effect real change. I honestly wish people would stop the various updates about the tatton as they are nothing but smoke and mirrors designed to pacify the good people of our lovely village. I like many don’t see the point in voting as frankly it changes nothing, suffice to say I will continue this thought at the next pointless election.

By next month it will be twelve years, not ten, that the residents of Gatley have watched a poor example of Art Deco design crumbling before our eyes.

Admittedly for many years the site was passed from speculator to speculator. Was it four sets of owners? Until finally Dickens bought it and we actually had someone who came up with a plan. OK, then we had village participation and were asked what we would like and from then on the whole business collapsed into a multitude of ideas, most of which would never have been feasible. I know, I heard most of them!

Yes, you are not the only one who is sceptical. I think you will find that the majority of citizens of Gatley wish the place would disappear in a puff of smoke once and for all!

The people of Gatley are to blame for the whole fiasco. If they’d used the much loved cinema it would be still in business. If they had accepted the development proposals without such uproar the site would have been developed by now.

A few years back a proposal for a supermarket was rejected thanks to a Libdem-led campaign to reject it. How short sighted that was!

I don’t think we would want to take the credit away from a very effective community-led campaign against the previous Tatton proposals, Bruce.

Hi David,

Tesco did not need planning permission or Council approval to open at Gatley Green – because planning permission already existed for a pub, nothing further was needed for a food store.

It is disingenuous to suggest that opposition was community led.
Cllr Jones trumpeted the opposition as his initiative to the extent that he was disqualified from the Area Committee Meeting. He need not have worried – Cllr Millard was vociferous in his rejection DESPITE RECOMMENDATION OF ACCEPTANCE BY THE COUNCIL’S OWN PLANNING OFFICERS.
There were fewer than 200 “anti” residents at the meeting(2% of the electorate).
Cllr Roberts then conducted a straw poll of residents and discovered more than 50% IN FAVOUR of the development. Confusingly for a democracy, he pronounced the majority too small to come out in support of the developer (Can we expect Councillors with slender majorities to refuse to take their seats on this philosophy ?)
Incidentally, Cllr Roberts is on the record as in favour – before his LibDem candidature was announced and he took the party line.
Council rejected the proposal , and Cllr Roberts was self-congratulatory when the developer’s appeal failed – even though the failure was on a technicality, confirming NONE of the Council’s objections.
In truth the collective Councillors supported an FSB initiative orchestrated by Bosco for the alleged benefit if Gatley Traders and to the detriment of residents. Their vision of retail Armagheddon was disproved as soon as Tesco opened at the south end of Gatley.
Parking at Gatley Green is no worse than before – these shops are small convenience stores and NOT supermarkets.
The tragedy is that the Tatton development of convenience store and care home would likely have improved the micro economy.
Whatever Dickens say now, the site is probably land banked; a CPO will never happen – SMBC have neither the resources nor a potential buyer.

Iain, I noticed that your address appears on the list of those opposed to the development (council web site)

Just that you and the Libdems led the reject campaign from teh beginning. Had it been passed, Tesco would not have opened down the road and the eyesore would have been removed.

Oh dear, I seem to have started an avalanche!

Perhaps when Dickens’ new considerations are announced the citizens of Gatley could have a secret ballot on their proposals instead of having public meetings, which as Iain rightly says only attract the “antis”, then if Gatley residents don’t get the result they would like they won’t be blaming the minority who shout the loudest for the next three years, as they do now!

Just a thought.

My understanding is that less than 1% of the electorate complained about the planning application.

Can you reproduce your leaflet from September 2009 giving the result of your “door-to-door”?
My wife and I both recall a very slight majority in favour

The blog post you refer to concerns to a different proposal for the Tatton, not the planning application.

My view on the Tatton has always been that we have to try everything we can: most probably won’t work but we only need one to come off. That related to one that we worked hard on, but didn’t work out.

I’m not aware of any formal poll done on the planning proposal. Clearly, of those who expressed an opinion to the planning department or at public meetings, an overwhelming majority were against. As I mentioned before, when I went around asking people about that application, my impression was about 60-40 against.

Hi Phil,

The survey we did was conducted several months after the original planning permission was turned down, and looked at alternative options – not the original proposal.

We used that information to inform discussions with the developers on what the next step might be and which different options might be acceptable to residents.

I suspect I won’t persuade you, Lee, but I hope you’ll understand that I do feel it’s the right thing to give people updates when there’s genuinely new information, even if that information isn’t of the nature of “something will definitely be built by 13th March”.