Macclesfield Future...part 3

I posted yesterday about "Macclesfield Future" - a scheme by the council to develop a strategic plan for what we want out of Macclesfield's Town Centre and the Lyme Green area.

One important element of the Macclesfield Future scheme that is due to be considered by cabinet is the cost.

At present they're asking for a budget of £150,000. This is just for the strategic planning and association legal and administration costs that go alongside it.

Initially I found this terrifying. You wouldn't believe the amount of voluntary organisations that I speak to who do excellent work on very tight budgets. Just think what the sector could achieve with a pot like this?

But then I consider that we really need to make something happen with the town centre, and this seems to be the only route that we can use to come up with something that pleases everyone. In addition, any development in Lyme Green area where the council owns some of the land would have to be carried out in line with EU procurement laws, and I understand that some of the £150k budget is to cover the required advertising costs in line with these laws.

That said, we cant get away from the fact that a good deal of the money will be spent on consultants who are going to carry the main piece of work. This will upset many, who think that we should do this work "in house". But then of course that isn't free - I hope not anyway, as I hope that we don't have people sitting around twiddling their thumbs. We'd therefore have to recruit a full time person to do the work, but I doubt if they would have the required experience and that's the crux of this.

We need consultants with experience of town centres of our type (far more than our size). We don't want someone who is all into big, commerical developments. We need someone that understands the cultural and tourism offering that Macclesfield should have.

I'm prepared to pay a premium to ensure that's what we get. And if we don't get the right person, then this project is likely to go the same way as the previous two.