Dear Editor,
We need an urgent action plan to revive Crewe town centre. Town centres are like a house of cards.
Remove too many cards and the house collapses. Crewe town centre is sadly getting near that point.
Just look who we have lost in recent years, M&S, BHS, Boots, Iceland, The Works, Poundland, Burtons, W H Smith, Argos, Wetherspoons, Wilkinsons seem likely to close, the Post Office closed, the outside Market is virtually dead and there is very little retail in the Indoor Market Hall.
What have I missed?
Cheshire East and the Town Council should convene an emergency meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, leading retailers in the town, the landlords of the vacant shops, the Crewe Town Board, the MP, & political parties in the town.
They need to draw up an urgent action plan to revive the town centre before it is too late.
They need to recognise that the proposed retail/entertainment facilities proposed for the Royal Arcade site will never get built and re-allocate some of those resources to getting the 67+ empty shops in the town centre let again.
Time is short.
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Brian Silvester
Leader #CreweFirst
Cheshire East don’t own the shops……but they should be speaking to the owners of the 67 vacant shops in Crewe town centre to try to get them to offer initial rent free periods to get the shops occupied.
Some of the shops, like the old M&S, have been empty for years.
Hi cheshire east council you should be raising the rent on retail shop not town centre shops that what driving shop out to retail parks if you made the rent in the town cheaper then the shops won’t move out of town centre