Cheshire East Council has consulted on revised proposals for library services across the borough after listening to feedback about how essential savings can be made over the next four years. 

The council is proposing to reduce the current opening hours of libraries across the borough so that all sites are closed for at least 1.5 days during the week. This will mean libraries such as Alsager that are not currently closed in the week will close for a day and a half.

The consultation, which has now finished, follows the approval of the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) in February, which includes proposals for how the council will balance its budget for the next four years. 

Alsager Station is to be included in East Midlands Railway (EMR) plans to install CCTV at four stations across its Regional network at a cost of more than £120,000.

The stations at Alsager will benefit from the new cameras which will be installed by Spring and help improve the station environment. 

EMR has worked closely with station adoption teams and local community groups to identify areas at each station that require camera coverage – helping to address any anti-social behaviour, vandalism and graffiti, as well as providing reassurance to customers.

The project is part of EMR’s Stations Social and Commercial Development Plan which allows station adoption teams and local community groups to highlight, promote and suggest improvements to stations. The train operator at Willington Station, CrossCountry, has also contributed £15,000 towards the improvements.

A proposed consultation on the introduction of car parking tariffs in Alsager will no longer be going ahead.

A report which went before Cheshire East Council’s highways and transport committee had recommended the introduction of standardised zonal parking across the Council’s car parks, which would have seen car parking charges introduced in Alsager. 

However, strong opposition from councillors and residents concerned that the introduction of car parking fees would have a negative inpact on the viability of the town centre has led to the committee voting against the proposals meaning that charges will not be coming to Alsager’s car parks.