Wilmslow Town Council has announced that it will provide support to aid the recovery of the town centre following the Covid lockdowns.
At the Council Meeting on February 15th, members agreed to put in place town centre management for a twelve-month period.
The decision followed that taken at the December meeting to allocate £75,000 of funding from 1st April 2021, which includes £25,000 for town centre management and £50,000 to fund town events.
In 2020 the Town Council appointed Groundwork to undertake a Business Improvement District feasibility study, the results of which will be made available over the coming months.
Town Clerk Matthew Jackson said "This work will help determine how a vibrant town centre could be managed in the future and will be aided significantly by a Town Centre Vitality Study which was commissioned by Cheshire East Council and which will deliver its outcomes later in 2021.
"The Town Council however felt that the circumstances did not give Wilmslow Town Centre the time to wait for these reports prior to taking direct action and have agreed to appoint Groundwork to provide town centre management as soon as the businesses reopen in early April.
"The selection of Groundwork recognised the need for continuity, their existing knowledge of all parties already engaged in ongoing work, their potential ongoing work that could run in parallel in developing a future Business Improvement District and their expertise in delivering the town centre management function elsewhere in Cheshire and Lancashire."
Although the funding is only in place for a twelve-month period, the Town Council feels that it is a critical time and are hopeful that the structure put in place will deliver results now.
Martin Watkins, Chairman Wilmslow Town Council said "It is in everybody's interest that our town centre is resilient and fights back from the devastating impact of the last twelve months. The Town Council is funded entirely by the residents most of whom want a town centre that is vibrant and serves our changing needs and our decision to invest in his way recognises that we as residents are partners in delivering and benefitting from a strong town centre.
"In the past the Town Council has worked with the business community in supporting the business group, funding Christmas lights, funding town centre events and working to aid the return of the Rex Cinema. We believe that the business community need our help now as a Council and as individual residents.
"In any successful long-term partnership all parties need to contribute and we hope that as circumstances improve for businesses, a longer-term funding solution can be established which delivers for town centre businesses and residents alike."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
@Mark Russell, the £75,000 is from Wilmslow Town Council (I don't happen to agree with this funding). The £1M you mention is £900,000 from central government and is only to be used on walking and cyclin improvements; with a £100,000 contribution from Cheshire East Council (I don't happen to agree with this particular one either, as it happens).
Please, if you feel compelled to bleat about every subject under the sun here, at least aim at the correct targets!
Wilmslow town is very special with a fantastic and vibrant mix of businesses, cafes and restaurants. Businesses which include shops which have already adapted to the changing times with on line activity. We have fantastic jewellery shops, clothing shops,a department store, a flower shop ,a fantastic cinema, even a hospital, as well as all the service businesses, solicitors, estate agents, banks, opticians,some great cafes, and Art Deco buildings. These businesses will adapt with a little bit of help, and I agree that we should welcome small residential additions, as is happening already off Water Lane, but we have a great future as a small town because it’s a great place to be.What a successful addition the new bike cafe has been, showing imagination as a bike shop and coffee bar. The town can be made more so with positive improvements to its landscape, verges, and general appearance, which is already planned. Locals, as well as people working within the existing and future shops, cafes and offices, will use its facilities, its a captive basis and footfall for the town centre.Let’s build on what we already have with our unique mixture of businesses and facilities and support them as much as we can when it all opens up again, it’s a great place to be.
The well organised Artisan Market,run by Denise Valenti and her team revitelises Wilmslow town centre on those days; we need to thank her for all the effort to ensure such a monthly event for our mutual benefit and to support the traders/stall holders for their wide and varied range of offers.
Finally, I would suggest that WTC ask serious questions of the Groundwork team's track records elsewhere (if any) before "jumping into bed" with them.What other town centres has it revitelised and at what cost, are they ongoing & if not, why?
It’s a very good point.
Some might say that the Artisan Market days are (were) the one day of the month when it was interesting to visit the Town Centre.
There can be little doubt that the market draws people in and hopefully, if they can brave the soulless, chewing-gum strewn void of Grove Street, they might happen upon some of the other retail units that the town has to offer.
https://www.wilmslow.co.uk/news/article/8842/retailers-call-for-artisan-market-to-switch-to-sundays
The footpaths were crowded with not that many pedestrians; it just seemed like an absolute hoard so compressed were we into the narrow footpath space with the majority of the available width given to the cars.
Cars dominated the scene. A slow moving continuous stream of them belched fumes into the space between the tall buildings, drivers' and passengers' eyes sweeping the line of parked cars hoping for signs of one that might be about to depart thus liberating a treasured parking space. The cavalcade would halt while the parked car was packed with shopping, boarded, and departed. The lucky space-claimer then did a Reginald Molehusband (who remembers that?} parking sequence before the cavalcade could move slowly on, round the block, to re-enter Grove Street yet again, circuit after circuit, like suitcases piled onto the wrong airport carousel with no passengers to claim them.
And all of this was when cars were smaller than they are today - there were few behemoth 4x4s back then which today comprise much of Wilmslow's traffic. Grove Street probably isn't wide enough to accommodate today's through traffic, parked cars, and footpaths either side.
One might equate the decline of local shops with the pedestrianisation of Grove Street. But perhaps that might have been caused by Wilmlowites abandoning their local High Street when enterprising retailers opened the Handforth Dean shopping centre with its expansive free car parks, and partially funded the dual carriageway feeder road from Wilmslow straight those car parks (AKA the Wilmslow Bypass). Since then we have had the massive impact on-line shopping to bang yet more nails into the coffin of the traditional High Street.
I prefer Grove Street today, given over to people rather than dominated by the internal combustion engine. Yes, it would lovely to have all those interesting shops back, but beware rose coloured spectacles when looking to the past. The reality is, we don't really want to abandon the convenience of on-line and out-of-town shopping which would allow the return of those shops.
Otherwise.... we would.
WTC did not shut the market down. It did not and still does not have the statutory powers to do so.
I accept all that you say about some of the impracticalities of ye olde Grove Street, but I do think that, as a thoroughfare it gave ‘life’ to the centre of town.
The pedestrianisation was brutal and unimaginative and brought with it a kind of ‘precinct’ feeling.
If you consider King Street (Bottom Street) in Knutsford, it has all of the narrow pavement / parked cars problems that Grove Stree had, but it offers a much more interesting and enjoyable commercial experience.
Did I say it was “the councils fault”? No.
You ask; “Why can’t anybody get anything done?”
May I ask: What exactly is it that you want doing? And why?
It is hard to see pedestrianisation is the problem when the shopping streets in Wilmslow that do allow traffic aren't faring much better.
Apologies. Having looked back at the thread of comments, I see that you have already provided the answers to my questions.
i.e "Grove street needs to be opened up to traffic again. Make it one way with one hour free parking. Would be a massive boost to the town."
Whilst you may well be right, this wasn't a proposal that made it into the Neighbourhood Plan.
http://shorturl.at/pxNUV
The plan was: ‘shaped by considerable input and feedback from the local community through an extensive consultation process.’
One of the objectives of the plan is:
"To maximise the visual quality of the Town Core, improving and encouraging access by sustainable modes, reducing the dominance of vehicles and the creation of an attractive and accessible destination space."
Your proposal appears to be in direct conflict with this objective.
You ask: ‘Why can’t anybody get anything done?”.
From experience I can say that it takes over 3 years of hard and unpaid work by 20+ volunteers on a budget of circa ₤50,000 to get something done. That is, the production of a Neighbourhood Plan, that withstood scrutiny from an independent inspection and on a turnout of 17.59% of the electorate, received 89% of voters support.
I applaud your passion, but in this instance I think you are “flogging a dead horse”.
See this link for how people are rejecting pedestrian areas........
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/howden-town-centre-pedestrianisation-plans-5030862.amp
Grove street has died, not gone busier over the last few years. Perhaps the owners of the shops should be canvassed to see what they think as after all they pay the big rates to the council. I can name 10 shops that have shut down there in three years.
According to his 1954 autobiography 'Slide Rule' (a great read by the way), Shute was not very impressed by Howden, or at least not by its younger inhabitants. He wrote:
"The lads were what one would expect, straight from the plough, but the girls were an eye-opener. They were brutish and uncouth, filthy in appearance and in habits. Things may have changed since then – I hope they have. Perhaps the girls in very isolated districts such as that had less opportunity than their brothers for getting into the market and making contact with civilisation; I can only record the fact that these girls straight off the farms were the lowest types that I have ever seen in England, and incredibly foul-mouthed."