140 Main Road ScG Parish Council Public Consultation Results
The building, 140 Main Road, owned by Cheshire East Council, hosted the Shavington Primary School first, and then the Youth Club until 2020. After that, the Old School building has been left vacant and felt in disrepair, with important roof repairs needed to bring it back to a safe state
Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council ran a public consultation to gather residents’ view on the future of the Old-School Building (140 Main Road). All households in Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council received the letters and were invited to fill a paper or online survey about 140 Main Road. Each household was given a unique household code to vote. The survey ran from Monday 5 September to Sunday 25 September midnight.
392 surveys were returned of which 158 were paper copies and 234 were completed online.
The results of the surveys were as follows.
Paper Survey returns
30 (18.99%) voted Yes to saving 140 Main Road through using funds from an increase in council tax, 128 (81.01%) voted No to this.
Online Survey returns.
57 (24.36%) voted Yes to saving 140 Main Road through using funds from an increase in council tax, 177 (75.64%) voted No to this.
Overall results
87 (22.19%) voted Yes to saving 140 Main Road through using funds from an increase in council tax, 305 (77.81%) voted No to this.
Conclusion
On October 5th the Parish Council considered the results and made the following resolutions:
That, based on data from the public consultation run by the Council, a recommendation is made not to progress with any activities which bring responsibilities to fund costs of repairs and refurbishment by the Parish precept.
That a recommendation is made to consider other opportunities to preserve the building as a Village asset and safeguard the streetscape of Main Road.
Update – March 2023
Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council requested Cheshire East Council to undertake a tender exercise to test the interest of other community groups for the building; this ran from December 2022 until 24 February 2023. Please see Expression of Interest, The Old School – 140 Main Road for more information on this.
On Monday 27 February, Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council were informed that Cheshire East Council did not receive any offers of interest.
Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council are now awaiting further information from Cheshire East Council on the options for the building going forward.