BIG PICTURE
see you soon I hope. Xx Jessica Simcock: Those pies are amazing! Shaun Wilde: Oh No!
COUNCIL approves 150 homes on green belt. The scheme for land off Dickens Lane, Poynton, has been allowed despite local opposition (website, November 8) John Devlin: Absolute joke! Building on the green belt, but can’t reach a decision on what to do with Barracks Lane site?! The artists impression of how that site might look that was on the front page of the Macc Express some time ago, basically showed a car park and a Costa coffee shop. Just what’s needed another chain store shop in a town where small local businesses are an endangered species! Who the hell comes up with these schemes?! It’s almost as if the planning department want a completely mass produced town centre and nowhere to go for a walk in the countryside! Chris Wainwright: Having lived in Poynton for 70-plus years, I think we need new life, less wimpering and a more positive attitude to our (now) town. When I was in my formative years, there was no Hockley Estate. No Tree Estate. No Vernon Estate. No Waitrose, Morrisons. No Queensway or School Lane Estate. Park Lane was houses – apart from a few shops – and more to the point, very few cars. Take it on people, times, as Dylan said, are a’changing. Embrace it! ‘Nuff said! Dennis Orme: And you could get fresh Hovis from Bancroft’s. Sharon Pollard: Yes it’s one big mess, clone town. Maria Wood: More greenbelt land. This is getting beyond sensible. John Hunt: We’re all wasting our time if it’s deemed to go ahead IT WILL! Nowt you can do about it..... Sharon Pollard: Poynton......one big gridlock to avoid
JUDGE backs council’s £1,000 litter fine. A man who had to fork out more than £1,000 after being caught dropping a cigarette has lost his appeal against Cheshire East Council’s penalty (website November 7) Mark Eeles: I have never smoked and hate everything that goes with smoking...but we need to take this fine into perspective.
A council can fine you up to £1,000. The law courts from before the bench in previous issues of Macc Express can fine someone £200 plus costs with a Community Service order for a Section 31 assault...has the world gone mad? Or is it just Cheshire? Pete Watson: If they provided specific bins not just the few refuse bins for smokers to put them in safely the populous of the town would keep it cleaner for themselves. Richard Hudson: Or just read the actual article and see it’s an £80 fine and the rest is court costs because he pleaded not guilty? Mark Eeles: I think it is the fact that they can fine up to £1,000 that has caught everyone’s eye.. Dan Mayers: Poor smokers. Always being made the victim. It does seem like a very steep fine, but then again, there are people out there who still think it’s okay to throw packaging out of car windows, on the move. Littering of any kind is just lazy and so unnecessary. A pretty easy fine to avoid in future. Just saying. Amanda Barnett: I do smoke and put it out properly but we need more butt boxes even if it’s the foil ones spread around the town and people would use them! Carole Poyser: Mmm funny druggies, robbers and worse are ok to do what they want, my poor 83 year old mum is scared of dropping a tissue. Tom Drennan: The fine was £80 and £930 costs, because he pleaded not guilty. If he had pleaded guilty (as he was) the fine would be £80. About the same as for parking illegally. Stephen McDermott: Still draconian. What you’re advocating is “plead guilty or else”. Call that justice? I don’t. Where’s the signage and waste disposal units (ashtrays)? Or are we expecting smokers to put them out in their hand and put them in their pocket. Whether you like it on not, smoking is not illegal. Tom Drennan: Smoking is not illegal in Macclesfield but it is illegal to discard the butts. He pleaded not guilty although he knew he WAS guilty. That resulted in a requirement for the judicial system to proceed. That costs money, he has to pay for it. Like it or not that’s the system. Lessons learned? 1. Don’t break the law. 2. Don’t plead not guilty if you are guilty. Now let’s stop all the whining. Anna Pacheco: It’s does seem to be that smokers are being alienated and victimised these days. Granted littering is bad but facilities to put a burning cigarette out are limited in truth. Surely butts are degradable too? I don’t smoke anymore but I accepted the ban without a problem and I’ve always tried to be considerate of non smokers but treating smokers like society currently does is getting unacceptable. The government isn’t earning tax from us now we’re stopping so they’re penalising the remaining smokers in whatever why they can. Tom Robinson: Think they walk around with cameras, if you didn’t pay you’d end up like this guy with a £1k fine. LAST week, the council Cabinet voted to withdraw most bus subsidies in Cheshire East.
In an act of pure political short-term opportunism, they are ending funding for all Sunday services and most evening routes. For the sake of saving £1 million, they will cut lifelines for thousands in Macclesfield, the surrounding villages and the rest of the borough.
As one Macclesfield resident says in this week’s Express: “Local bus services are vital for people to travel to work, to go shopping, to go to Leighton Hospital, to visit loved ones and more. This council hasn’t realised the huge devastating impact they would have on communities if they were to go through.”
Even a Conservative councillor (Andrew Kolker, Dane Valley) is quoted by the BBC, warning that the cuts could mean there is “literally no access to food” in some parts of the borough.
The council held a “consultation”, but their only concession to nearly 4,000 residents telling them they rely on “out of hours” buses has been to keep a handful of evening routes going.
Services have already been cut to the bone, with no Sunday buses to villages like Pott Shrigley and Bosley and no midweek evening buses even in a town like Bollington.
Cutting public transport in order to keep council tax rises down is a false economy.
Those with no access to a car may have to pay taxi fares to get to work or the shops or to visit friends and family.
Forcing people to rely even more on private transport can only increase polluting emissions as well as adding to the road maintenance bill.
The leisure economy could be hit as it becomes harder to access the Peak District and other countryside areas.
No more bus cuts!