At next Tuesday’s Cheadle Area Committee, there’s a report on “commuted sums” – money allocated to parks and play areas.

We’re being asked to commit a further £1,397.77 to a future project at Gatley play area.

Other local parks and play areas that have received these commuted sums include:

• Brookfield Recretation Ground behind Chestnut Avenue, Cheadle has £17,690.56 – most of which is being spent on their new Multi-User Games Area.
• Over £34,000 has been spent on improvements to the play area at Bruntwood Park
• Nearly £10,000 being spent on the Carrs Road rec ground in Cheadle (that’s actually in Cheadle Hulme North ward)
• Nearly £40,000 being spent on the Diamond Jubilee Recreatin Ground in Cheadle, behind Frances Street.
• Over £34,000 was spent on Gatley Rec Ground improving the skateboard ramps and the children’s play area.
• £443 committed towards the building of new play equipment on William Scholes Field (the bulk of the money is coming from the Government Playbuilder project).

Edited to add: all this money comes from developments.  When a planning application is approved, there’s frequently a sum of money to pay to improve the local area.  Traditionally this went on highways improvements, but Stockport pioneered the use of this money for open spaces and play areas (the Council went to the High Court to defend the policy, won and has since seen it copied across England).

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