An Alsager couple who have fostered more than 20 children have been recognised with a long-service award from Cheshire East Council. Ann and Arthur Frost were among those recognised at a ceremony in Congleton where 25 awards were presented to foster carers across the Borough in recognition of the way they improve the lives of young people. Ann and Arthur, who live in Alsager, are currently fostering twin boys with Down’s syndrome who have been with them for about 12 years.

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Alsager sixth form students saved their pennies for their last money raising event of the year. They all gathered together in the school sports hall to see which form group could make the longest line using only coppers. The winner was Mrs Salt’s year 12 form group with over 50 metres of pennies. Deputy Head Boy Tom Jones and Deputy Head Girl Annie Tyson, who had jointly organised the event, said: “This was a great event to get everyone involved and have some fun at the end of term. We are really pleased that such a simple idea could raise £175”. The money raised will be shared between this year’s chosen charities – Macmillan Cancer Support and Headway, the brain injury charity.

Cheshire East Conservative Group has announced that the new Group Leader will be Councillor Rachel Bailey, ward member for Audlem. The decision was taken at the Group’s meeting on January 14th 2016. Councillor Bailey beat the only other leadership candidate, Councillor Janet Clowes ward member for Wybunbury. The new Group Leader has been a Cheshire East councillor since May 2008 and is currently Cabinet Member responsible for Children and Families. However, although Cllr Bailey is the leader of Conservatives – which is the largest party on Cheshire East – she is not yet the leader of the council. That post is still held by Cllr Michael Jones, who will continue as leader until the next full council meeting, which is due to be held on February 25. Cheshire East Council must ratify the decision of the Conservative Group and this is expected to be done at Full Council on February 25 2016.

The Douglas Macmillan shop in Alsager need volunteers – can you assist on any of these days? Monday afternoons, Tuesdays, Friday afternoons and Saturdays – if you can spare some time please send a message to e-mail – workforceservices@dmhospice.org.uk or call 01782 344300 and ask for Maxine Wakelin.

Fiona Bruce MP visited Rode Hall Christmas Market on Small Business Saturday, 5th December, to support local small businesses.

Fiona met with local small businesses including, Ann Rogers, founder and producer of Alsager Pottery, and with Carole Vestey of Woodside Apiaries of Rode Hall Estate, Scholar Green which sells honey and candles from the bees it has had for over 40 years.

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Cheshire East Council’s highways teams will be working around the clock this winter to keep the Borough’s roads safe for motorists.

The end of October marked the start of the winter maintenance season in Cheshire East. Duty officers are working to dispatch gritters to treat the Borough’s road network in response to any winter weather conditions.

Cheshire East highways teams treat a total of 1,090km of primary roads across the Borough’s network. Gritting takes place on a precautionary basis to stop ice forming and snow is dealt with using specialist equipment such as snow blowers, all-terrain quad bikes with attachable snowploughs and towable gritters for footways and roads with restricted access.

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Three Alsager schools have been involved in a project with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service to display artwork at Alsager Fire Station conveying key fire safety messages.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service worked with the schools, Cranberry Academy, Pikemere Primary and Highfields Primary, encouraging the children to draw a variety of pictures to represent key fire safety messages. A safety advocate went into each of the schools and delivered a talk around road and fire safety to give the children the information they needed to produce the artwork ideas. These drawings were then given to a design company to use alongside key safety messages to create the five panels. [Read more…]

Alsager Station has again been put in the spotlight at the annual East Midlands Trains (EMT) Best Stations Awards.

This year, Alsager took the Community Partnership Award in recognition of the involvement of schoolchildren in improving the station gardens and commemorating World War 1, and individual projects with the station volunteers like station twinning with Rose Hill, In Bloom and a new garden celebrating 100 years of the Women’s Institute.

This year’s Alsager Christmas Lights Switch On event will take place on Sunday 29th November from 4-8pm.

Come along to enjoy a huge range of festive entertainment, from Band’s Santa’s Grotto, performances by Crewe Brass,The Can’t Sing Choir, ACT Drum Corps The Singalong Choir, Denise Leigh’s operatic singing at Alsager Civic, Festive market stalls, fairground rides, life-size Minion characters etc. An array of local shops will also be open during this event. The Christmas lights will be switched on at 6pm at the Bank Corner crossroads, followed by a spectacular firework display. Wrap up warm!

Cheshire East Council is to give free wi-fi access to library members.

The service will be available across all of its 16 libraries for all library opening hours. Members can simply log in using their existing membership number and password/PIN. Anyone who isn’t a member can easily join free of charge. In addition to wi-fi they can then take advantage of a wealth of free resources. To join you just need to bring in one proof of identity showing name and address. The service is part of the Council’s aim to help people get online more easily through a modern library service and promotes digital inclusion across Cheshire East. The service will adopt the security filtering as on its public network in order to safeguard young people.