Cheshire East Council has received news that one of its bids, (submitted by the Conservative administration in March this year) to the government’s Future High Streets Fund has been put forward for the next stage of assessment.
The new £675m Future High Streets Fund (FHSF) was set up to support and fund local areas’ plans to make their high streets and town centres fit for the future.
Earlier this year – and following an independent assessment of all towns in the borough by an expert consultancy team – the council submitted two bids to the fund; one for Crewe and one for Macclesfield.
Yesterday, the authority received notification that its bid for Crewe town centre had been selected to go forward into the next phase of assessment, which will involve the development of a full business case for capital investment by the FHSF.
The news gives a further boost to the Conservative regeneration plans for Crewe town centre and follows on from recent announcements regarding the remodelling and refurbishment of Crewe Market Hall and redevelopment of the Royal Arcade site.
Whilst it seems that the Macclesfield FHSF bid has not been successful, Historic England are now inviting Expressions of Interest in the High Streets Heritage Action Zones scheme (HSHAZ) - a scheme that
There are strict criteria for this fund, the main one being that the scheme needs to be in a conservation area in a town centre.
Macclesfield was put forward for this fund following the commissioning of an expert consultant team to undertake an independent assessment of all towns in the borough, and to recommend which town centre should be the subject of any expressions of interest.
This assessment recommended that Macclesfield would perform best against the criteria - fingers crossed!
