Ambitious plans to turn a derelict piece of land next to River Weaver into a hotel, restaurants and apartments have been ditched in favour of a new car park.
Investors behind the “Vision for Nantwich” project had targeted the former derelict land off St Anne’s Lane for the initial scheme.
But since then Covid caused delays and rising costs means the project is no longer viable.
The team behind the scheme confirmed today they will instead be building a new wide bay car park, which will be barrier controlled.
Cllr Anna Burton told town councillors last night (January 9): “The St Anne’s Lane project is not going ahead because of the cost of building, it has become unobtainable.
“They do plan to create a car park which I think local residents would be happy about.
“It’s a car crash of a site at the moment and a new car park is a good option.
“They’ve had to start again with all the necessary reports for the council so they can get planning permission.”
The original plan had been for a riverfront hotel, 31 apartments, restaurants and boutique businesses, along with associated parking.
The scheme was to be delivered by Vison for Nantwich Limited – run by brothers Mark, John and Paul Schofield – who first revealed plans for the site in November 2015 and bought the land off CEC in February 2017.
Paul Schofield told Nantwich News today: “Yes the reason for abandoning the original plan was because of cost.
“The council identified a need for more parking in Nantwich hence why we are putting planning in for a wide bay car park which Nantwich doesn’t have.
“It will be barrier controlled with APNR all solar powered. The plans will hopefully be submitted next week.”
Nantwich town is on the decline , it needs to provide people in. Nantwich and elsewhere with reasons to visit .The original concept was a great idea and I do wonder what CE failed to do to work with Schofield to make it happen. An additional car park will not make any significant contribution to Nantwich but it seems that CE believes in building car parks where they at not needed and add no value for example Crewe. I was hoping that CE and CW will merge and maybe then we will see benefits in cost reduction and economies of scale .
That’s a shame. I guess another car park will be useful but I’d much rather have improved infrastructure.
Nantwich (IMHO) must be one of the most pleasant places to live, but with all the new housing, we’re in danger of outstripping our resources.
How laughable is this? A car park was closed down, and then cleaned up (which was a very good idea given the residual contamination due to the gasworks legacy) and now its to be turned back into a car park.
Do we really have so little vision for brownfield development in the town?
Yet housing developers are happily putting in speculative applications for new housing estates on green field sites all around the area?
Both Nantwich TC and CEC should be putting this site forward for decent affordable housing in the town and make best use of its brownfield status rather than additional development in other areas.