The present delay (which can be clawed back if things go well) is entirely due to negotiations between the developers and Macclesfield Borough Council over the terms on which the piece of land on which the wooden old folk's club now stands.

The library scheme will go ahead whether or not this small piece of land is included.

The reasons I have strongly supported its inclusion are as follows:

It would give the new library an excellent frontage.

It will provide a new old folk's club to replace the old wooden building which is rapidly reaching the end of its useful life and will become an eyesore.

And it will provide an excellent modern meeting venue for the area.

All this can be achieved at no extra cost to the hard-pressed charge payers of Knutsford.

Cheshire County Council has put in the large present site and the old library site as its part of the bargain so that the new library will not cost the charge payers anything either.

A sensible deal is being worked out with the Lord Chancellor's Department for a small additional piece of unwanted land by the Sessions House.

All this adds up to an excellent scheme in which everybody wins.

As a borough, as well as town and county councillor, I readily agree that Macclesfield Borough Council needs to ensure it's getting value for money in releasing any land to the scheme.

I want to assure them that the people of Knutsford and the wider area could get no better value for money than to include this otherwise useless piece of land in the overall scheme on reasonable terms.

It should be made clear that the inclusion of this land does not contribute at all to the cost of building the library itself.

Early indications from the borough were that a sensible and co-operative deal in the interests of Knutsford is what would happen.

I now gather that they are asking the developers to pay a price that would be the equivalent of £2 million an acre! I am quite sure a more reasonable deal than this impossible demand can be worked out - indeed I was under the impression one already had been concluded which was satisfactory to all parties.

If the club site is not included we are left with a land-locked plot of land that cannot be developed with a tumble-down hut on it which will have to be repaired or rebuilt at huge cost.

Macclesfield Borough Council and the people of the area will continue to get 5p a year under the terms of the lease for the next 30 years.

If it is included we get a newly-built old folk's club and meeting room for free.

The new library gets a sensible entrance and Macclesfield Borough Council gets something like £25,000 cash in hand.

Which is the better deal?

CLR BERT GRANGE

Boothfields

Knutsford

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.