Fairview decision deadline extension has been requested

Asda and Alsager Town Council have just over a week left to decide whether to take over Fairview car park, before charges are brought in by Cheshire East.
The authority plans to install parking meters at Alsager’s main car park and at others across the town in mid-September – unless the supermarket giant or town council steps in.
With the clock ticking, a possible proposal is being considered by Asda to take over Fairview and offer two hours’ free parking for shoppers – but no decisions have yet been mad.
After six months of waiting for figures from Cheshire East, the town council was told last month that it would need to fork out £225,937 a year for the site, including business rates of £10,400 and maintenance of £19,649, based on an average of the last three years, balanced by projected parking charges revenue of £195,888.
Speaking during a town council Planning, Environment and Community Committee meeting last Tuesday, chair Coun Michael Unett said it was “ludicrous” that the council had been told it had to make a decision within 28 days of receiving the figures.
He said: “Quite frankly, they have run down the clock and I think it’s been a cack-handed process from start to finish.
“Clearly, looking at these figures, there is no way in hell we would be able to do all of this because the impact to our budget would be extreme.
“There is a meeting tomorrow (with Richard Hibbert from Cheshire East highways), which I will be going into with some very difficult questions for them.”
Coun Unett said that the decision made by Asda, which has been in talks with Cheshire East about taking over the car park since the vote to introduce them was made in January, would be “crucial”.
Town clerk Julie Mason said she had spoken to an Asda PR representative earlier that day, who told her that things were still under negotiation.
She said the company was considering the cost of keeping the car park free for shoppers, alongside the possible loss of trade that it could face due to the new Sainsbury’s being built on Linley Lane, Alsager, which will include free parking.
She said: “The impact of Sainsbury’s is going to be a minimum of 30% to him. He has to produce a model to say whether they are prepared to take the fee for the car park on board.
“He wants to do it on vehicle recognition and give two hours free to the public. That’s ideal, but he doesn’t know if the board will say it’s a good or a bad thing.”
Ms Mason said she had told the Asda representative that there was “no way” the town council could fund the car park completely.
She told the committee: “If we only had to fund something – and this is just hypothetical, idealistic figures – but we (could have) 50 spaces for the Civic and they pay the rest.” But Ms Mason said Asda planned to challenge Cheshire East over how it had come to the figure of £225,937 and would meet for further discussions with the company.