After years of inaction there’s an enormous push by Cheshire East to get the amended Wilson Bowden town centre development plan approved for Macclesfield.
In a hugely inflammatory statement one of CEC’s planning chiefs told residents that the public consultation is ‘not a referendum’. So, what is it? A PR exercise to placate the peasants?
There’s a lack of respect in that remark that smacks of contempt, a sense that the public are idiots who must be told what’s good for them.
Someone needs to point out the council is there to serve the people, not the other way around. This is the type of condescending arrogance that created the Lyme Green fiasco.
The planning decision is being made against a swiftly changing retail pattern.
The past month alone has seen Blockbuster, HMV and fashion retailer Republic go into receivership.
Peacocks has closed their doors in Macclesfield town centre, as have Millets and Yeomans while Next have moved to Lyme Green. If Next can’t make it in the town centre what chance Debenhams?
Online shopping is growing exponentially and big retailers are grouping together in malls and out of town sites with easy access and free parking.
It’s no mystery that Handforth Dean and the Trafford Centre flourish while High Streets die.
The success of Treacle Market in Macclesfield and the Artisan Market in Wilmslow have shown what does work. Niche retailers operating in a social environment.
Look at the town centre cafes on market days, they’re crammed full of shoppers meeting and greeting each other. It’s an environment you can’t recreate in mall or retail park.
CEC says we are desperate for housing so why not reduce the retail space and build houses in the town centre sympathetic to the surroundings?
A bookstore with online facilities and a cafe-lounge could work along with a small theatre, restaurants, coffee shops, antiques and niche retailers in an environment sympathetic to local heritage.
Of course, there are dozens of conflicting ideas that must be harmonised but the overriding concept must take account of rapidly changing chains of distribution.
Like it or not we are in a retail revolution and need to be ahead of the curve or risk the development being obsolete before the first store opens.
However inconvenient the facts, maybe events have overtaken the Wilson Bowden scheme.
