Dear Editor,
This is how #CreweFirst would revive Crewe Town Centre.
Labour-run Cheshire East needs to re-think plans for Crewe Town Centre…and urgently… before the entire Town Centre collapses like a house of cards.
We currently have a £11m multi-storey car park, that nobody wants, and a TEMPORARY inadequate Bus Station.
No point in building new shops when 67 shops have been vacant for far too long (many for years) and 27 have been demolished.
Concentrate on getting those that are there let.
The larger units need to be subdivided so they don’t pay Business Rates and the rents need to be reduced.
Introduce at least six-month rent free periods. Introduce Incubator Retail Units. Cheshire East are currently offering CAPITAL grants….but that just shows how out of touch Cheshire East is.
Those grants will have little impact on the goal of getting the empty shops occupied again.
Make easy in/easy out short leases available.
Make it easier and far cheaper to open a shop in the town centre.
Make it easier for entrepreneurs to take a punt on opening a retail unit in Crewe Town centre.
The old M&S store could be opened up as an indoor Market, with numerous stalls. The Outdoor Market could be revived and encouraged with lower rents than competing Markets in the area.
It is disgraceful how Cheshire East has allowed the Outside Market to disintegrate to virtually nothing.
The Outside Market used to be a hive of activity. All human life was there !!!
The Labour run Borough and Town Councils should be putting on special events EVERY weekend in the town centre to attract people into the town.
The Town Council should take over the car parks from Cheshire East, so they could then have NO parking charge periods.
This would attract shoppers into the town.
Regular displays should be put in the windows of the empty shops to make them and the town centre more attractive.
Get local schools to put on displays of their art work in the windows of empty shops.
The £11m multi storey car park, being built in the town centre, is a blot on the landscape, a ‘White Elephant’ that nobody wants and few will use.
Some of the £11m should have been spent on fixing the ever increasing number of dangerous potholes in Crewe.
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Brian Silvester
Leader
Putting Crewe First
I like some of these ideas but think it’s to late Cheshire east has ruined Crewe town centre.
The multi story carpark is a disgrace nobody will use it so its money that’s never going to see a return there isn’t any way back for Crewe town it’s gone forever & it’s not just Crewe there are tons of towns going through the same situation so it’s either go to somewhere like Manchester Birmingham or Liverpool or just do it online it’s a bleak outlook however you look at it ☹️
The council don’t own the shops and landlords just want too much money, so there’s the whole opinion shot down try again with real factors that can be influenced
Some very good ideas, particularly like the idea of an indoor market in the old Marks and Spencers building.
This has been a party political broadcast that no one in Nantwich cares about.