A developer has revealed a new action plan for the  town centre.

New proposals by Wilson Bowden have been announced  which promise to ‘revise, reshape and re-approach’  previous plans.

The old design will be scrapped and a new planning application could be submitted in the autumn with public consultations possible in June.

Will Robinson, development director of Wilson Bowden, outlined the  plans at the regular Macclesfield Business Breakfast at the town hall on Friday.

He said: “We’re trying to look forward and have got confidence in Macclesfield.

“Macclesfield is clearly a town rich in heritage but it’s not been immune from the downturn everywhere has suffered over the last few years.

“At the moment there are competing centres and the priority has to be to make sure the expenditure stays in the town. To do that it needs retail development.”

The project could see  a ‘circular zone’ between Castle Street, Water Street, the bus station and Roe Street with the retail quarter below it.

Park Green could become a commercial leisure area featuring an eight-screen cinema which Cineworld has said it would move into.

The redevelopment is pencilled in to start in 2014 and building work would take two years.

It would be phased in with the first taking place around Water Street, Churchill Way, between Roe Street and Samuel Street, and between Samuel Street and Paradise Mill.

Phase two would be the area bounded by Castle Street, Mill Street, Roe Street and Churchill Way and phase three around Chestergate, Mill Street, Roe Street and Churchill Way.

But not everyone welcomed the latest idea to breathe life into the town centre.

Restaurateur Mandy Fazelynia, from the Macclesfield Chamber of Trade, said: “The development’s focused on the bottom end of town and there are concerns on how it impacts the rest of the town centre.”

Other ideas include turning Mill Street into the primary pedestrian street and a option to replace the Senior Citizens Hall on Duke Street with a new community facility.

MP David Rutley, who chaired the meeting, said: “The things that came across were: it was a smaller development and was more in keeping with the heritage of the town.

“They were important developments from previous plans which had very little support.

“It’s vitally important for WB to work with CEC and with local community groups to ensure that the latest plans sit with wider regeneration initiatives for the whole town.”