Long overdue Macclesfield indoor market makeover

Thanks to a £1.3m grant from the UK government Shared Prosperity Fund plans are underway to refurbish Macclesfield’s dreary and dated indoor market.

The money, needs to be spent by March 2025, so there’s a need to speed up the process of procuring a contractor.

Cheshire East’s Economy and Growth Committee (we wonder what they’ve been doing for the past few years) will meet next week to commence search for a company to deliver the project.

A report to the committee states: “An extremely tight timetable for delivery of all UKSPF-funded projects is dictated by UKSPF requirements.

“Whilst ongoing design and costing workstreams are not due to be completed until circa June 2024, committee approval to proceed to enter into contract is being sought now, to prevent any unnecessary delay in the process which might jeopardise the project.”

More than a quarter of the market’s 50 stalls are currently vacant and it runs at a loss.

The council says it “has recognised several disadvantages facing the indoor market including uninspiring architecture and limited visibility from public vantage points”, the report states.

The refurbishment of the indoor market forms part of the Macclesfield SRF, drawn up for the council by Cushman & Wakefield, OPEN, and WSP.

Perhaps someone at Cheshire East might have taken a look at the success of The Drome, on Chestergate, which reflects the popular continental approach to indoor markets. Then again, that would take strategic foresight – a quality our council doesn’t seem to possess.