As part of the redevelopment of the former Ciba site at Stamford Lodge on the A538 Altrincham Road in Wilmslow , the developer has handed £250,000 to Cheshire County Council (CCC).

This is normal practice when a new development goes through a planning application. An agreement is reached (frequently called a Section 106) whereby the money given to the local authority is spent on the local area (eg. access improvements or redevelopment of amenities).

In this case it is hoped by MaccBUG that the £250K will be spent on:

• Cycle use monitoring equipment on the nearby Airport Orbital Cycleway .
• The extension of the existing off-road cycle path from the Airport Orbital Cycleway into Wilmslow (it currently reaches just past the Honey Bee Pub).

The funds have been held by CCC for approximately 12 months (they have 5 years in which to use it) and MaccBUG is keen for the cycle counting equipment to be installed as soon as possible in order to obtain "baseline data".

Similarly we are keen to see design work begin on the cycle/pedestrian path extension (hopefully continuing on the same side of the A538 as the existing path).

CCC Highways currently have no resource dedicated to this project due to other priorities - it is hoped that early in the new year 2008 we may see some progress.