Is investment in Crewe costing Macclesfield?

Macclesfield folk may be pleased to hear that Cheshire East are spending a further £42 million in Crewe, in the form of a major highways scheme aimed to improve access and ease congestion.

The scheme is just one of a number for Crewe including the Cleaner Crewe project in Crewe, the £3 million refurbishment of Crewe market hall and the £100,000 improvement to Crewe’s Queens Park.

Other schemes realised in Crewe include the opening of the University Technical College and Lifestyle Centre, as well as the delivery of a number of major highways projects including the Sydney Road Bridge and Crewe Green Roundabout schemes. 

You’ll also be overjoyed to learn of the council’s financial support to give Crewe city status.

Most recently, Crewe also secured a ‘Town Deal’ from the Future High Streets Fund and a separate allocation of funding from the government’s Towns Fund of up to £22.9m.

To a lesser extent other towns in the borough were supported in the form of the upgrading of Nantwich’s Barony Park, the £10 million Congleton Leisure Centre scheme, the £90m Congleton link road project, the £74 million Middlewich bypass and the £53m Poynton relief road.

Cheshire East has also been allocated up to a total of £37m from two separate government funds, earmarked to deliver two separate packages of projects that will support Crewe’s ongoing regeneration.

To level up the playing field Macclesfield saw completion of the Castle Street pavement project – at a cost of £1.6 million.

Is it really any wonder that Macclesfield is on it’s knees?

If you want someone to blame you can thank John Prescott’s Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which in April 2009 foisted unitary authority status on us and signalled the end of Macclesfield’s economic dominance in Cheshire.