Alsager's public realm working group can begin preparing consultation plans, but the town council want the consultation to be carried out at the appropriate time and publicised correctly in order to maximise community response amid Covid-19 restrictions.

'Reclaiming the Road' is the working group's vision and the proposals centre on the delivery of objectives set out in the recently approved Alsager Neighbourhood Plan.

The key objective of the scheme is to make Alsager town centre the hub of the community, which responds to a wide range of needs and activities that enables people to meet and enjoy a range of social experiences.

At a public realm working group meeting which was held earlier this month, members of the group unanimously agreed to make the following recommendations to Alsager Town Council:

- That the town council approve the scheme proposed by the consultants, Xanthe Quayle, and move to consultation with Alsager residents.

- That the public realm Working Group continues in the current format to prepare and monitor the consultation.

- That £1,000 is released from the town council's general reserves into the 2020/21 budget to allow the group to fund the consultation and report to the Planning, Environment and Community Committee.

These recommendations were discussed at Tuesday's Alsager Town Council meeting.

Cllr Derek Hough felt that a "tremendous amount of work" had gone into the £6 million scheme which has been passed so far and suggested moving forward with the public consultation.

Cllr Michael Unett, who sits on the public realm working group, queried what form the consultation would take and how it could be carried out due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

Cllr Unett added: "We are going to have to make sure that the consultation, when we move forward with this is full and we give enough sufficient time for as many residents as possible to respond.

"At the end of the day, if we move forward with this and we can get the funding, this is going to be a significant change which is going to affect every single resident who lives in our town and every single visitor.

"We do need to ensure that we do have full consultation with appropriate time."

Cllr Sue Helliwell, who also sits on the working group, explained that she only "supported" the scheme as she was under the impression the proposals would go before the town council and they could discuss the consultation process.

There were suggestions that the consultation could take place in the library or the Alsager Civic, but under the present times with Covid-19, Cllr Helliwell felt that the consultation needed to be postponed for at least six months.

Town clerk Nicola Clarke told the committee that councillors only needed to agree in principle to the recommendations made to allow the working group to work towards preparing the consultation for when it could go ahead.

Mrs Clarke said: "If you do not support this then they [public realm working group] are not able to carry on and do any work."

Cllr Pauline Hubbard said: "I think we need to bear in my mind that we do have to progress this in some form and there may be some things included that we are all not happy about and the public will not happy about, but we need to get the consultation process underway.

"I think it is critical that the working group meet and discuss how that consultation takes place, what we could achieve in the current environment or not, so I believe those discussions should actively take place.

"I want us as a town council to be prepared, ready to receive and apply for any funding as it emerges and I think if we delay by six months we will be shooting ourselves in the foot."

Cllr June Buckley, also a representative of the working group, fully supported the scheme but a major concern for her was the state of the sewer running under the town's high street.

Cllr Buckley continued: "I feel that once we are underway and have got the scheme approved, we need to contact United Utilities and find out exactly what they are going to do about that sewer.

"Because it would be tragic if we got this wonderful scheme done and then we started getting the sinkholes or even worst they [United Utilities] rocked up and 18 months later they had to dig up the road and put a new sewer in."

As for public consultation, Cllr Buckley suggested that the "big" noticeboards outside the library would be "perfect" to put big storyboards up explaining the public realm project. The ward councillor also felt that virtual reality would be a good mechanism to use, which would allow the community to watch a film on YouTube regarding the scheme.

Cllr Unett proposed that the working group could prepare plans on how and where the consultation would be undertaken, but it should go before the town council before being implemented.

Cllr Julian Goodrich said: "I do not think we should be rushing into any consultation during Covid-19 mainly because it could cut out a lot of the residents of the town who haven't got technology and may not be willing to come out to venues at present."

Councillors agreed:

- That the town council approved the scheme proposed by the consultants and the working group could move to consultation with Alsager residents at the appropriate time.

- That the public realm working group continues in the current format to prepare plans for the consultation amid approval by the town council.

- That £1,000 is released from the town council's general reserves into the 2020/21 budget to allow the group to fund the consultation and report to the Planning, Environment and Community Committee.

You can see what Xanthe Quayle has planned for Alsager town centre here.