I love Macc? Do you?

I've had all sorts of meetings now with all sorts of people regarding the Town Centre development. Some are shoppers, some are shop owners, some want the town to be a social hub. All of them have different reasons/priorities/agendas for wanting a good future for Macclesfield Town Centre. And yet whilst their motivations are different, all of them come up with the same arguments for why this town centre development is wrong, and why we need something that's sympathetic to our heritage, good for commerce, and immediate.

My last meeting, with the architects of the alternative development, gave me a real call to action. It turns out that many of these things we can do with or without a town centre masterplan. Some of them we can start now. And best of all, a lot of them won't cost a huge amout of money.

So I suggest that we all start moving forward with ideas. You, me, the council, our Sir Nick, our newspapers and radio stations. We all have a part to play and we can all do something to make Macclesfield a better place. We don't need central control. In fact without it we'll have a more organic and democratic approach.

My intention is to focus on the following four items over the next couple of months:
1) Get a better parking deal for shoppers. Free for an hour, on Saturday, or after three; I don't know. But this is a great tool we have at our disposal.
2) Market Traders back in the town square. A mean....we're a market town. Let us make the town square the centre of attention, although we'll need to work to get a better layout and accessability for the traders.
3) Clean the place up a bit - Litter is never good.
4) Get rid of closed shops. Easy said than done....although through a tip off from Eric, and some conversations with a council in Gloustershire, I'm going to try and get art displayed in the windows of otherwise closed up shops. At least it'll brighten the place up.