Selling off the family silver?

Above: Churchill Way car park which may be sold off

No, not the mayor’s regalia – that’s for the future, today it’s our car parks.

There was a time, just a few years ago, when the lack of car parking in Macclesfield was the topic of debate.

Covid played a massive part in the virtual destruction of town centres, but Cheshire East must take its share of the blame, for the lack of investment in Macclesfield.

Recent Freedom of Information requests uncovered the massive differential between investment in Crewe and Congleton as opposed to Macclesfield.

Having contributed in no small way to the demise of Macclesfield town centre Cheshire East Council is now considering selling off part of two Macclesfield town centre car parks for housing.

This comes hot on the heels of Cheshire East’s admission that its £11 million car park in Crewe has been a complete disaster.

Should cash-haemorrhaging car park be sold?

A report to next week’s meeting of the economy and growth committee states the long-stay car parks at Churchill Way and Duke Street are under-used.

If the proposal goes ahead Churchill Way could be reduced from the existing 276 spaces to 123 and Duke Street from 275 to 105, meaning a total loss of 323 parking spaces.

The report refers to a recent feasibility study and states: “The study indicated that partial release of both car parks should not result in significant negative impacts.”

The report acknowledges, “it is clearly important to ensure adequate parking is retained to support the needs of residents, visitors, and businesses, to avoid undermining town centre vitality and residential amenity”

A study shows if the capacity of the Churchill Way and Duke Street car parks were reduced to 123 spaces and 105 spaces respectively, displaced vehicles could be accommodated in existing alternative car parks.

The economy and growth committee will be asked on Tuesday to agree the proposal to bring forward land forming part of Churchill Way and Duke Street car parks as housing sites, subject to them being declared operationally surplus.

Councillors will also be asked to delegate authority to the the executive director of place to explore and select the most appropriate form of housing redevelopment to be located on the surplus land forming part of Churchill Way and Duke Street car parks.

Think on, they want someone who’s only been in his post for less than six months (December 2024) to take all the decisions! Cheshire East’s executive director of place, Phil Cresswell, was previously employed at Hounslow for just a short period – April 2023 to December 2024.

Of course what the report failed to acknowledge is that if Macclesfield has the investment it so badly needs – investment that has been promised in the council’s campaign to secure devolvement of power – the shortage of car parking will again be on the agenda.

They’re also not admitting that there is adequate land assigned for housing in Macclesfield – so the real reason is to help bale-out the financially incompetent council.

“Once in a generation opportunity” – lol!

 Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Macclesfield MP Tim Roca has welcomed the proposals.

He said: “I recently wrote to the Chief Executive of Cheshire East Council, urging them to explore opportunities for developing underutilised spaces in Macclesfield town centre as part of a ‘brownfield-first’ approach.

“I’m pleased that the council has listened and is willing to think creatively about how we can revitalise the town centre by encouraging more people to live in and around it.”

Maybe this shows just how out of touch Mr Rocca is.

The meeting takes place at Macclesfield Town Hall at 2pm on Tuesday, March 11.