Parish Council AGM – 13th May 2026

The Parish Council meets at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of every month at Astbury Village Hall, Peel Lane, CW12 4RQ, though we sometimes don’t hold a meeting in December.

 

Minutes of the Annual Parish Council meeting, Wednesday 13 May 2026

Astbury Village Hall, 7.30 pm

Present:

• Councillor J Critchlow
• Councillor N Plant
• Councillor P Critchlow
• Councillor C Sutton
• Councillor B Jelf
• Councillor I Parry
• Councillor M Bailey
• Councillor C Pear
• Councillor A Banks
• Mr C Evans (Clerk)

Part 1 – Public and press Forum

No members of the public were present.

050/26 – Declarations of Interest

Cllr P Critchlow concerning the election of the Chair. Cllr Sutton concerning one of the Planning Applications

051/26 – Election of the Chair for 26/27

Cllr J Critchlow was unanimously elected as Chair of the Council for 2026/2027, and duly read out and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

052/26 – Election of the vice-Chair for 26/27

Cllr N Plant was unanimously elected as Chair of the Council for 2026/2027, and duly read out and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

053/26 – Apologies for Absence

The Council resolved to receive and accept apologies from:

• Cllr P Cliff, prior engagement
• Cllr T Potts, prior engagement

No apologies were received from Cllr Harrop.

054/26 Minutes

The Council resolved that the minutes of the meeting held on 08 April 2026 are a true and accurate record.

055/26 – Ward Councillor report

There was no verbal report in Cllr Wardlaw’s absence but she had notified Councillors by email that:

 

• There is renewed interest in better road safety at the Village/A34 and the senior highways safety officer has been invited to attend a Council meeting to discuss this further.
• The broken boundary sign at the fallen tree on Peel Lane has been reported.
• Cheshire East Council will vote on proposed governance changes.
• The Combined Authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Warrington held its inaugural meeting in April.

 

056/26 – Accounts

The Council discussed and resolved to approve the accounts (see Annex 1 for details).

 

057/26 – Planning Applications

26/1147/HOUS

Proposed replacement of single detached garage to new garage/agricultural store. Oak Tree Barn, Oak Lane,

The Council resolved to raise no objection.

 

26/1077/FUL

Retrospective planning application for change of use of the land from private equestrian use to commercial equestrian use Doric Riding Stables, Bent Lane

The Council resolved to raise no objection.

 

More generally on planning, the Clerk will support the Council by trialling a slightly different approach to preparing for discussions to ensure consistency of approach between applications and with the Neighbourhood Plan.

 

058/26 – Registers of Members’ Interests and Declarations of Interest Dispensation Requests

The Clerk reminded Councillors to update their Registers of Interests and to seek, if necessary, a dispensation to discuss any known topics that might come up for discussion during the year.

 

059/26 – Policies to review

The Council resolved to approve the Standing Orders, Financial Regulations, Document Retention and Storage Policy, and IT Policy

 

060/26 – Risk Assessment, Asset register and Insurance Policy renewal

The Council resolved to approve the updated Risk Assessment, Asset Register, and to renew the Council’s Insurance Policy with Zurich Insurance. Councillors noted that the premium had increased mainly because of the addition of the SID and SID posts.

 

061/26 – Business Plan

The Council discussed again the various potential projects that it had identified and that it would like to pursue as part of a revised Business Plan. The Chair recognised that Councillors may have limited time to lead on individual projects, and some projects are longer term, so there would need to be a prioritisation exercise. Part of this would entail a review of Council assets such as benches, the Common Land, war memorial, and possible adoption of the decommissioned phone box by the cemetery entrance etc.

 

Cllr Plant will sketch out a draft outline of a three year rolling Business Plan that can be used as the basis of a discussion at the next meeting. Cllrs also felt it would be helpful to look again at the list of councillor responsibilities to make sure there was an even distribution of work in delivering the Plan.

 

062/26 – Highways

Cllrs noted that there were many blocked drains/gullies across the parishes, and the measures to discourage anti social behavior in the laybys on Mow Lane/Congleton Road were contributing to flooding across the road.

 

063/26 – Common Land

Cllr P Critchlow reported that Streetscape had undertaken significant remedial works and installed bat boxes etc., but the nettles in particular are coming back strongly.

 

064/26 – Expenses and Allowances

Chair J Critchlow reminded Cllrs that if they incurred expenditure relating to parish business they should consider making a claim for reimbursement. The Clerk will make further enquiries about the tax treatment of allowances.

 

065/26 – Chairman and Members’ reports

The Council noted that Cllr Potts had offered to take the minutes of the July meeting and Cllr Pear offered to assess the condition of the two wooden benches near the cemetery and treat them if needed.

 

Cllr Jelf reported on the Sibelco liaison Meeting. June was the target for starting sand extraction at the Somerford farm site. Cllr Sutton asked for volunteers to help with the Astbury May Day activities. Cllr Plant asked the Clerk to discuss further instances of waste dumping on Fence Lane with the Environment Agency. Cllr P Critchlow has researched details of an additional 5 soldiers for the war memorial and has sent details to the Church authorities.

 

066/26 – Clerk’s Report

 

The Clerk discussed the state of the sycamore on the Village Green and the Council resolved to commission a tree survey to assess its condition, which the Clerk will pursue. He asked Cllrs to let him know of any problems with the Cheshire East Planning Portal as he is collating feedback. He is still investigating solutions for installing a defibrillator in the kiosk at Ackers Crossing and Cllr Pear offered to make further enquiries about the requirements for the defib unit we already have.

 

 

The meeting ended at 2050 hrs.