From Newsletter, May 2007

Welcome to the summer/spring newsletter. Now the weather's better why not try one of our Timperley Walks (Leaflets from the meetings or from Naomi, who says it's time we did another, so watch out for a new leaflet No.3).
Fame at last - Timperley on BBC Radio Manchester.
You may have seen the brown 'bus' otherwise called Studio 6, parked outside the Stonemason's middle in May and then the radio car on Monday 15th. Becky Want's programme included chats with some locals, mostly businesses in the Village, but a lot was left out including recordings of people's memories about policeman Jack Pinkerton and the time when a Barracuda of the Fleet Air Arm crashed into a house in Park Road during WW2. She also mentioned Timperley again the next day.
Recent meetings
At our March meeting, Alan Pulford described how to Manage your Health, with special reference to Parkinson's Disease. Everyone commented on the new perspective he gave on this illness, and how you can cope and carry on with life.
In April, Bob Merrill's talk about Altrincham in Bloom gave us an insight into the competition and his school's contribution. (There may be changes this year with Altrincham perhaps having a separate competition of its own, so watch out for news.)
Pauline Holden's talk in May on 'All our Yesterdays' was very enjoyable, including the 'audience participation' - with comments like "we had one of those" or even "I've still got one like that". We hope she can return with another talk next year - watch this space.
Ah, the relief!
The new Loo on Thorley Lane car park is now in operation, having waited weeks for the electricity to be connected, and already vandals have done some damage (bit of concrete missing).
And LA Coaches have taken over the old 298 and 299 circular Bus service and the 281, but now the number 11 has been changed and no longer goes through the Village, so people from the Broomwood can't use it to get to the Village shops, and the other way, folk from the Village area can't get a bus to Wythenshawe Hospital.
And the footpath across Larkhill has been re-surfaced, although the council seem to have missed bits at either end. We'll have to see how it holds up to rainy weather.
Trafford held a consultation survey in February about local rights of way, but we've not heard any results yet. We are looking at the rights of way in Timperley. When the Definitive Rights of Way maps were compiled in the 1980s councils were allowed to leave out suburban areas, so the south part of Timperley (with fields and golf course) has paths marked on the 'definitive' map, but the boundary runs along Shaftesbury Avenue/Stockport Road, and in the northwest along Manchester Road, and in between the footpaths are not marked officially as rights of way. They are - but they're not marked as such.
Planning Applications We mentioned last time a plan for Flower Craft Cottage, Stockport for a four-storey office block at the rear. Now there has just been another application by the same people for a three-storey office block. The plans are not yet on the Trafford website, so we can't say yet how different this new one is, but we will comment on this. Another recent application is for a children's nursery at 20 Mainwood Road - what do you think?
The Trafford UDP (Unitary Development Plan) new version is now out and we have succeeded in getting included several amendments put forward by Timperley Civic Society. We owe thanks to committee members including Brian Bingham and Rod Woodhead, who put in a lot of work on this. We're keeping an eye on the changes proposed for the planning laws, recently in the news, and how they may affect our ability to comment on developments in Timperley.
We have been making efforts to get details of our meetings into the Messenger, then recently, the Messenger has started up a 'Timperley District' page on its website. They have asked for input from the Civic Society, so in future this will be another way to publicise what we do. Have a look at: http://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/news/timperleydistrict/