MORE then 250 people attended a public meeting to have their say about future of the town centre.

The forum, at St Michael’s Church last night, was organised by MP David Rutley in response to the Debenhams pulling out of the £90m Silk Street development.

The move threw the whole scheme into disarray and prompted Cheshire East Council to review its deal with developer partner Wilson Bowden.

Mr Rutley was joined on stage by Caroline Simpson, director of Economic Growth and Prosperity for Cheshire East Council, and Clare Hayward, chair of Make it Macclesfield forum.

Mr Rutley said the setback should be turned into an opportunity and cited Alderley Park - the former AstraZeneca hub which has been transformed into a business park for the bioscience industry - as a example of what could be achieved with the right strategy and resources.

Caroline Simpson made efforts to reassure residents and traders that the council was working hard to drive forward regeneration.

She said £1m was being spent to revamp the town centre with a focus on Mill Street; £25m was being spent on highways improvements around the town; planning processes were being sped up to regenerate brownfield sites; and a £15m pot had been created for the council to fund developments rather than be reliant on the private sector.

Mrs Simpson also revealed that the council was advertising for a £58k-a-year project director to manage the regeneration of Macclesfield and that the council had ‘stepped in’ and bought two sites which form part of the town centre redevelopment. But she wouldn’t say where they were.

The discussion touched upon car parking, the Senior Citizens’ Hall, plans for the cinema and the role of the new Macclesfield Parish Council.

But the biggest response came from Wake Up Macc campaigner Peter Fowler who questioned the membership of the new Macclesfield design board, which will be headed up on behalf of the council by property developer Nick Hynes (pictured above).

He said: “It worries me that the people on the design panel will be the same people who supported the Silk Street scheme.

Mr Rutley finished by calling on people to offer help to the design panel and Make it Macclesfield.