Facebook comments
LAST week we revealed that a date had been set for a public inquiry into a retail development at Barracks Mill (Express, April 19, p13).
Here’s what our Facebook followers thought: Martin Smith: Why not compromise? The www. facebook.com/Macc ExtremeSportsCentre/ (LSC) project is open to discussions on taking 36,000–40,000ft of the Barracks Mill development. This would much lessen the retail impact on the town centre and draw visitors from within a 40-mile radius daily and further afield frequently. The existing model the LSC’s partner developed in Hemel Hempstead attracts families from as far as St Ives (a 4.5hr drive) on a regular basis. We also potentially have too many “sit down and eat” leisure options entering Macclesfield without an activity led facility of scale to counter the obvious future health implications: obesity, diabetes, heart disease etc. Sian Hussey: Get on with it, it looks atrocious. It is a death trap and an enticing ‘play area’ and for idiotic teens Andy Nicholls: More than likely due to them thinking it will take business from town (what little business there is!!), and possibly the extra traffic generated causing major congestion with the road layouts in their current state.
Retail wise we need the centre sorting out first before knocking up another generic concrete jungle. As Martin Smith has already mentioned, LSC would be a great idea! We need more activity centres that cater for all ages. Carl Wainwright: No need for this development - retail is fading and out of town stores have had their day. Grovenor Centre’s idea is the way forward - expand the indoor arenas of retail. Sue Price: Don’t think shops are the answer. Town centre shops are struggling as it is Andy Greenwood: Why do we need more stores out of the town centre when so many of the shops there are empty?? We should have housing there instead of eating up the green belt and sites like the High School!
Developers should be made to develop sites like Craven House and the Three Pigeons/Kings Head before being allowed to build out of town. Barbara Allen: Put something on these dreadful decaying buildings sites this town is famous for. They are an awful eye sight. Jenny Baker-Griffiths: Sort the town out first! Pete Lake: Just what we need, something to take more business away from the town centre.... invest in the town centre and fill the shops instead of these retail parks Melanie Butson: How are the daily lorries for deliveries going to get up Black Lane? Two cars can’t pass on that road because of the houses? Why sell off car parking in the town centre to build houses on while putting shops out of town when the logic says the houses should go at Barracks Mill due to the surrounding insufficient infrastructure and the town centre concentrated on to build it up as a market town again. Nathan Rourke: If [there’ll be] free parking and plenty of it, I’m in Mick Warren: Build it or see a burnt out shell of the old mill as you drive down the Silk Rd for the next 20 years. It’s too expensive for developers to clean up for housing and we need local jobs for residents that are sustainable i.e. easy to get to. Rachel Clare: This town is dying on its foundations, why would you want housing next to Tesco? There is sufficient housing in the planning in this town.
What we need is for councillors who live in Wilmslow, Knutsford, Prestbury, Congleton to stop deciding the fate of this once vibrant and productive market town.
There is no reason why ‘out’ of town shopping areas would impact the ridiculous town centre that offers nothing but mobile phones, cards and sausage rolls! I will be supporting the new development.
More employment opportunities Improved landscapes Desirable shopping locations
People travelling in to Macc at the weekends instead of the mass exodus we see every Saturday and Sunday.