Gatley Village Partnership: 16 projects for our village

by Lib Dem team on 6 September, 2018

Clare Forrest, Chair of the Gatley Village Partnership, writes:

Gatley Village Partnership – New Way of Working

First, thank you to our local councillors for allowing us to place this article in their newsletter.

GVP is the independent, non-political, community volunteer forum for Gatley. It’s where residents, community groups and businesses raise ideas and work together to take action.

But we need volunteers to sustain our events and projects. Commitment doesn’t have to be all the time or for everything. At the moment, very few people have offered their time and the leadership group cannot manage everything on its own. If we don’t receive more help then GVP will be forced to disband—which means no independent voice for our village.

Our new plan is to work everything on a project basis. For example, one resident has agreed to take on the regular litter picks for Gatley, recruiting volunteers, schools and other groups to take part throughout the year.

We have a number of projects on the go, none of which will happen unless we get more people coming forward. See the list below. If you can help or would like to take a lead on just one of these, or if you have an idea to help improve our village which you want to take forward, then please email gatleyvp@gmail.com .

1. Tatton History booklet—editing information supplied by the last manager of the Tatton before it
closed.

2. WW1 Returners book and biographies. These have been written by our local historian John Hartley and need editing and designing for Gatley’s Peace Day on November 10.

3. Placing ‘Tommies’ silhouettes around the village for Peace Day. We have been awarded ten of these
from the Covenant fund.

4. Articles about Gatley for local magazines — usually around 350 words bi-monthly.

5. Christmas Market and Lights Switch On. This year’s is December 2nd .

6. Sports Day—our annual family event.

7. Lifting and shifting— all events.

8. Late Night Opening— to persuade shop keepers to open one day a month in the evenings.

9. Peace Day—events including lunches, re-enactments and so on to commemorate the end of World War
One on November 10.

10. Disabled access and hard standing to the war memorial— organising the plans, planning permissions, fund raising and project management.

11. Lobbying Councillors, our MP, GMP, Northern and so on about issues which affect Gatley.

12. Media—Gatley Village Website, GVP Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram. Content and maintenance.

13. Bake Off —our annual bakingcompetition.

14. Litter Picks—volunteering to takepart.

15. Cleaning the war memorial.

16. Gatley History—obtaining sales outlets in the village for this new book.

Please join us. Thank you.
Clare Forrest. Chair. Gatley Village Partnership

   12 Comments

12 Responses

  1. DR C says:

    Any ‘busy-bodies’ out there?
    Given the rip-off Council / Tax which the electorate has consistently voted for – why would any right minded person want to volunteer to something for nothing??! ?

  2. John Hartley says:

    Dr C – I think you’ve jumped the line between silly contributions and are now simply trolling. I’m not rising to any further bait and I suggest my friends and neighbours do similar.

    • DR C says:

      You fail to answer our question…
      Given the sky high Council Tax in Stocky – why should / would anyone (who is not a busy-body to begin with!) give up their time to help that very same community which votes to fleece them?
      You reap what you vote – if you vote for parties of the ‘big state’ ideology you have every right to expect most of the things mentioned in the piece to be done by that very same council. ?

      • Iain Roberts says:

        Simple – Stockport spends less than most similar councils. I have explained this one quite a few times before, and I do appreciate that local government finance is complicated, but the reality is that – even with council tax – Stockport has less money coming in, and less money going out, than most other councils in the area.

        You can check the facts on this one – all the information is in the public domain, though it takes a bit of work. I’m guessing you won’t do that though, and you’ll keep on popping up and making the same claim.

        • DR C says:

          As tha has said before Councillor…
          How can Stocky Council place almost identical properties in a higher Council Tax band for an area where they sell at no more than in a neighbouring one?
          Stocky Council is a rip-off, but then you know that Councillor – which is why you profit from it for your ‘service’!

          • Iain Roberts says:

            Again, you probably need to do your research. Stockport doesn’t get any say in which council band properties go into. That’s decided by a national body.

            If someone thinks their house is in the wrong band, they can appeal. That appeal doesn’t go to Stockport, but to the national body.

        • DR C says:

          ? Ready as ever with the excuses!

    • bruce says:

      John – your talk at Elm road on the 10th November what time is it scheduled for? And can you give us all a reminder nearer the time?

      • John Hartley says:

        Bruce – just to let you know that my talk is scheduled for 2pm on 10/11 at Bethany Church. It’ll be about 40 minutes and is titled “What has the Great War ever done for us?”

        The GVP will publicise the day’s other events in due course.

  3. John Hartley says:

    Bruce – I don’t have a time yet, other than it’ll be in the afternoon (I’m doing a different talk in the morning somewhere in the Heatons). We have a planning meeting on Monday so will try and update for you then.

    I hope the Lib Dems will allow the GVP to publicise here the full details of the days events.

  4. margaret jones says:

    How about adding to your projects the improving of the Gatley running track, to attract more people into keeping healthy and fit.
    A kiddies cycle lane round the outside lane would be great for our younger residents to keep them safe and amused.

  5. Misty says:

    Hello Clare

    Wondered if you have contacted Cheadle and Gatley U3A about the Gatley Village Partnership and whether any of their members may be interested in any of the projects. Worth a try I thought. The U3A has a monthly meeting at Elm Road church and may be willing to put this item on their agenda.Interesting list of projects. Good luck!

Leave a Reply

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>