Councillor McCann was voted in as chair of the group for the year, following the convention that the committee has followed for many years of each ward in turn nominating a representative for two years.
Scholes Park
It had been requested that an officer attend to talk about residents’ concerns following the traveller incursion to the park, the Cheadle West & Gatley councillors expressed disappointment that this has been postponed to the next meeting as no one was available to attend.
Ward Flexibility Funding
The Friends of Lum Head had submitted a bid for £925 for stage lighting for the school. The group were granted £500 as this is a significant chunk of the annual budget. A number of questions were asked by councillors. It was suggested that the group may also be able to get support via the Match My Project – Stockport Council which teams up organisations which want to offer support with voluntary groups. Councillors gave a round of applause to the lady who presented the bid on behalf of the Friends of Lum Head, who had had to step in at the last minute.
Planning appeals
A number of sites in Heald Green are currently going through appeals, a number of which have been rejected, no issues were raised in the meeting.
Stockport Homes
Councillors were pleased to receive an interesting presentation on Stockport Homes. The housing provider has had a successful inspection, with the organisation very proud to be awarded a high performing “C1” grading. There are only 101 council owned properties in the ward, satisfaction levels are high. Cllr Charles-Jones raised a query about the complaint statistics, which was clarified. There were only four cases in Heald Green, also she asked if officers would be able to share information with councillors about the land owned by Stockport Homes. As this sometimes causes issues. An estate walk was suggested for the ward.
Trends in housing are that turnover is reducing, people are staying in their properties longer. There were 529 new tenancies last year, with 10,000 people on the waiting list. Unless people are homeless or in a life threatening situation they are unlikely to be rehoused.
Stockport homes runs a Rightsizing scheme – so those in three or four bed homes, can move to a smaller property; it will provide financial support for this. For a three bed property in Heald Green there will be typically 250 – 450 applying for every property that becomes available. Stockport needs more properties everywhere, even areas that used to be low demand these days see a high number of applicants.