Radical plans to build a new football stadium and a cinema in the town centre have finally been given the green light by councillors.
Cheshire East Council rubber-stamped the exciting masterplan to regenerate the town centre at a Cabinet meeting, following 10 months of consultations with residents and business owners.
Council leader Wesley Fitzgerald said: "This is a good example of try, try and try again. We have made mistakes but there is agreement now about how we are going about it. It's good for Macclesfield – at last the vision is beginning to look like a reality."
Councillors said residents had responded positively to the plans, which included a business breakfast event, and they were finally on the right track.
The vision focuses on redeveloping the town centre and the South Macclesfield Development Area (SMDA) between Congleton Road and London Road, which will house the new football stadium.
There are also improvements to rail links and new roads to and from the new developments which will help reduce congestion.
High on the list is the challenge of enhancing the town’s unique heritage and reinforcing Market Square, Chestergate and the upper part of Mill Street as the heart of the town centre.
And ideas for more leisure facilities include developing a new ‘retail quarter’ with a cinema, a department store and multi-storey car park. Cheshire East will now go back to developers Wilson Bowden with the revised scheme and separate consultation will take place early next year.
