Plans are currently being worked on for the development of a prominent town centre site which has become an eyesore.
Property Alliance Group and Annabelle Tugby Architects are working on a proposal for the Tescos Express site on Alderley Road and former sports bar which has been vacant since the building was repossessed on behalf of the landlord in May 2014. Prior to that the building was occupied by La Tasca restaurant.
Susie Fairbank Angus said "Our proposal aims to re-energise the centre of Wilmslow with the design of a new hotel and restaurant, and focus on improving the surrounding public realm.
"We have met with various members of the Wilmslow Council throughout the process so far which has been instrumental in the development of our design."
They will be holding a public consultation at Wilmslow Library from 12pm to 8pm on Tuesday, 10th December, where they will present their scheme with a model and sketches which Susie explains they "hope will communicate our ideas to the community of Wilmslow, sparking conversation and feedback".
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Answer - no
Add to that the elephant in the room - there is not enough car parking space in the town centre. Result will be parking chaos reducing spaces for shoppers even more.
And then the mysterious dog walking field application next to the Honey Bee. Is it a real business idea? Or Another hotel or airport parking in waiting........?
Wilmslow is fast becoming an office and airport service area. How does this all fit with the long term plan? Time to ask our councillors and MP if they care.
The plan actually allocates it for retail, restaurants, etc but elsewhere in the plan there is a policy which states that hotel accommodation, especially if close to the station, will be supported. This is ideally located for what they are planning.
I saw an early concept for what the developer is planning and it is high quality.
Before the comments flood in. No, I am not linked to this in anyway. No, I am not a developer. Yes I live in Wilmslow and care about the prosperity and look of this town.
I couldn't immediately think of a worse spot for a hotel and (yet another) restaurant but there we go, another money spinner for someone....no names, no pack drill! Justification - eyesore yes but more jobs, bringing more business into 'the town' to help out our deprived local businesses, come off it please.
As Julie Green states, is there a quid pro quo regarding the Post Office/convenience store - so where does that go? Bet there's no provision for it at the public meeting on the 10th but there will be a shiny model or schematic of this bright new, exciting concept that will do good for everyone.
The place is being done to death with schemes that will increase traffic/latent demands of parking provision for said existing and inevitable increases. It's daft, muddled thinking and then we have people like Pippa (apologies, I really do respect you opinion) offering the added inspirational 'greeeeen' support that it will "...encourage flood resilience and biodiversity" - we aren't in a Wilmslow bubble saving the world form itself, it's going to be another HOTEL less than 3 miles away from hotel heaven at Manchester Airport!!
Investment in the town should of course be encouraged but the scheme would need extremely careful consideration. We have a small town (I've even heard it referred to as 'the village'!). We are proposing a hotel right at its heart? It would have to be the right sort of hotel. The wrong the sort of scheme and the town centre will nose dive very rapidly. If you're in doubt, take a look at some of the hotels in Altrincham on a Fri / Sat night and see what spills out of the function rooms there. I would not want that in my town centre on a weekend. My concerns would be how 'ambitious' the operators are in terms of functions and what they have planned in terms of parking.
I'd be interested to hear more detail at the consultation. I would like to know specifically what the capacity will be in terms of functions.
Let be positive but in no way naive.
Those with long memories will recall the stitch up between a certain Dr.(?) Gibson, Pete's mob and the old Macc Council over Riverside Park. This resulted in the by pass link road being built over housing and business and not an empty piece of land. Apparently the good Doctor (of what) arranged a sweet heart deal to save his land from compulsory purchase at market value for scrubland.The council intimated a 4 star hotel would be welcome but - no - we got a couple of office blocks, thankfully with parking but of very little local benefit.
The car parks across the road are not all free after 6pm. Some are only free between 10pm and 6 or 7am .... So hotel users would have to be up and filling their parking meters before breakfast... and they’d be using the computers spaces in the morning!
Retail units will remain on the developments ground floor though, so there could be space for Tesco and the post office to return if they want.
I was told that a hotel chain is lined up for the 80 bedrooms but I am not sure if this is open knowledge or not. Therefore, I will just say that it is a large international, high-end chain and not a budget hotel brand.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
I agree with everyone who says the current building is an eyesore, with difficult access to the post office and Green Lane frequently part-blocked by Tesco delivery trucks. However, there needs to be a more imaginative approach to redeveloping this site, to provide some benefit to local residents and possibly including a community space for local functions. Any more deas from anyone?
And please, reinstate the post office to Hawthorn Lane or find space for it at the library, as suggested elsewhere.
I am not sure whether your post is tongue in cheek or you actually mean it.
If you actually mean what you say let me give you one example of how this scheme will help Wilmslow.
Hotel = visitors = people
Local Shops need need people to make money
Local people work in local shops
Local shops make money = local people earn money
Much of the angst ie fly parking, traffic chaos/congestion is due to the influx of transient week-day workers chasing a completely unplanned commercialisation of a very small domitory town (and yes I often do reference it in private as a 'village' that, half a century back it certainly was - a largish one of about 11K villagers), light on offices but well endowed with a full range of wonderful shops, services and entertainment that catered to almost every need and desire.
Tempus fugit, none the less we are where we are (rather, where we've been 'put') but trying to make it even worse with over-building is just plain madness if you, like me, want better outcomes.
The whole site in question was, as it's original 'modern' iteration, a car showroom/service garage (Lookers) at a time when the main road (A34) was Grove Street, having a thro' traffic 'safety valve' of Green Lane; the site was built on with the new A538 thro' traffic safety valve (Alderley/Manchester Road 'old' by-pass) a feature of future traffic requirements.
I know some contributors reading this might be yawning with disdain at this point but surely the solution is to only approve any future development that results in less demand on parking/traffic movements - de-value the area to developers and designate it green belt lite (my personal option would be a piazza type zone linking existing commercial/shopping areas). Wishful thinking maybe but a far more attractive and sensible notion to the brick and concrete brigade who have ruined a nice small town
...and Wilmslow is so in need of local employment that we don't even have the overblown Job Centre any more (surprise, it's now - even so much more necessary, private light commercial/office accomodation!!)
Your logic is, at best, mis-leading and at worst entirely wrong!
For a start you say ".... let me give you one example...." and then go on to make four statements.
Let's ignore your inability to count and examine each statement.
Statement 1.
Hotel = visitors = people
How do these people arrive in Wilmslow? If they arrive by public transport that would be less of a problem but if they arrive by car where do you suggest they park?
Statement 2.
Local Shops need need people to make money
Are you suggesting that the people who use the hotel (Statement 1) have come to Wilmslow to stay overnight and shop?
Statements 3.
Local shops make money = local people earn money
If local shops make money why are there so many empty shops?
Perhaps you mean empty offices make money.
And finally Statement 4
Local shops make money = local people earn money
Some local shops may make money however your assertion that "local people earn money" is totally fallacious.
Why would 'local people' need to park on Alderley Road, Buckingham Road, Knutsford
Road...I needn't go on regarding off-street and on-pavement parking.
I don't know your definition of 'local' but I can walk to Bank Square, as I have done for the past 40 years, in less than 15 minutes.
Over to you.
Clearly he knows who this is but we are being treated like children whose parent knows what is best for us.
Why would anyone want to open an hotel in the middle of Wilmslow?
Is it because it's near to Jamins Pizza or Henrys hairdresser? No, but it's easy to get to Manchester Airport or Manchester itself or even Crewe. Whichever chain it is will not benefit the local economy, perhaps save a few local jobs, but what it certainly will do is put 80 more cars looking to park in an already over crowded area.
Do we want our town (village) to be used as somewhere to park whilst they conduct business elsewhere?
How can it be reasonably claimed that potential investors, looking to re-develop a site that the very same commenters regard to be an eyesore, are ruining the town? The irony of all this of course is that it is these nostalgic naysayers that are ruining the town by consistency blocking any form of redevelopment that doesn't fit their archaic views. The fact that they're in some cases expressed in Latin reinforces this point.
Investment of this type is economically beneficial to the local economy and attracts further investment, that's how the model works.
It would be interesting to know how many of the negative commenters above actually took the time to visit the exhibition....
The only positive thing to come out of reading some of these comments was the laugh I had reading reference to a "piazza type zone". Get a grip! Where's the funding for that going to come from, with no potential return? I would like someone to build me a 5-bed detached house, for free. Weirdly though, no-one wants to do it.