Local residents claim a Trafford Council plan to remove up to 100 car parking spaces in order to make way for a new Jubilee Community Centre in Bowdon is “ludicrous”.
The council, which owns the majority of the land situated between St Mary’s Road and The Firs, is proposing to demolish the existing, asbestos-affected community centre and replace it with a new £750,000 facility that it says will “better meet the community’s needs”.
The plans also involve the sale of part of the plot to make room for the development of two pairs of semi-detached houses.
The proposals will be considered by the council’s planning committee this Thursday, but a preliminary council report has already recommended that the plans are approved.
That’s despite considerable opposition from local residents, who would see approximately 120 car parking spaces on the site potentially reduced to around 20.
That would mean the majority of visitors to local venues including The Cinnamon Club and Bowdon Rooms, the Stamford Arms and Griffin pubs, Bowdon Croquet Club, St Mary’s Church – and a number of other nearby locations – forced to find alternative parking on neighbouring streets.
Over 100 residents came together for a public meeting last Thursday, held at the Cinnamon Club, where opposition to the project was clearly articulated in the presence of two local Bowdon councillors, Michael Hyman and council leader Sean Anstee.
Andrew Shaw, chairman of Bowdon Conservation Group, said it was essentially the same scheme as one that was rejected only two years ago.
He added: “This is an integral part of our urban village, and if you take the car parking away, where will everyone park? They will have to go on the road.
“Council land is different from any other land in the sense that any other private landowner doesn’t get council tax and doesn’t have a duty of care. But what about the effect on traffic management? We just see chaos and are positively concerned about it.”
He added that the plan to put up a temporary facility during construction of the new facility was “not logical”.
The council claims a new facility is needed as the existing centre is “the most used community centre in the borough” – with regular activities including bridge clubs and ballet classes – and that the current parking arrangement “has always been informal with no parking scheme or charge for use”.
It also pointed to other parts of the plot, including a section owned by brewery Greene King, where parking spaces would remain, although it admitted that “there cannot be any guarantees as to its long term availability as it is not in Council ownership”.
Michael Sandler, a local solicitor and representative of Bowdon Croquet Club, said at the public meeting that the council would have “a major battle on their hands and [the scheme] should be withdrawn and alternatives looked at”.
And Jim Woods, the tenanted landlord of the Stamford, predicted “chaos” if the plans were given the go-ahead.
He said: “It’s ludicrous to lose the car parking spaces when they could spread the load of what takes place at the Jubilee Rooms elsewhere.
“There is no way that the council could proceed with the planning meeting, otherwise it’s criminal. Legally they haven’t met the criteria. They haven’t fulfilled the lawful obligations of a planning application in this area.
“Should they lose that many car parking spaces, it will either be detrimental to what businesses are here, or it will be chaos.”
