Ronnie's Rants

Masterplan is a Disasterplan

So back to the same old subject of Town Centre Redevelopment.

I and other residents of Dukes Court and Duke Street were treated yesterday to Wilson Bowden's new masterplan (their word by the way) for the future of Macclesfield.

They informed us that due to the current financial climate they've had to make a number of cost savings and come up with a new streamlined vision of the future of the town that has Debenhams at the heart of it. This, they assure us, along with the new Cultural Quarter at Park Green is going to make the town very wealthy and a place to be proud of. It was of course utter nonsense.

The Town Centre redevelopment has now metamorphosed into a large new shopping mall running parallel to Mill Street. It doesn’t redevelop the town as a whole, it redevelops part of the town, in an area that doesn’t need that much redeveloping and at the same time leaves the rest of the town to rot in its own excrement.

Wilson Bowden told us very condescendingly that they are creating 'prime' retail sites opposite the new Debenhams specifically for well known high street brands to take over. And only by creating these 'prime' sites will the scheme become commercially viable to them.

This of course means that the well known high street brands we already have on Mill Street (Next, Mothercare, New Look, etc) will have to relocate to these new 'prime' sites, leaving a mass of empty properties on Mill Street. (If they don’t move then how many other national high street brands are left to fill the new units?)

What right minded thinking can possibly think this is beneficial for the town? It beggars belief that Wilson Bowden has the audacity to present this as a masterplan and I’m absolutely apoplectic that our council would even consider for one minute that this is at all acceptable to anyone who lives and/or works in Macclesfield. Oh and another thing. Wilson Bowden s representatives stated that they have retained most of Dukes Court in the new masterplan.

They appeared to want a round of applause for this.

The fact is that what they are planning to leave behind is not a courtyard but a characterless cut through from rich shops to poor shops surrounded by car park and the backs of retail units. The plan is for whole of the building at the back of the courtyard to go, which means that both Ronnie’s and Toast Bars will go as well as the offices above; they also plan to take away the buildings that I’m expanding into, taking away the whole of the unique atmosphere my bar generates through trading outdoors.

Even if I liked the new masterplan and they went ahead with the town centre redevelopment as put forward yesterday, they still really didn’t have to destroy Dukes Court but they chose to anyway purely for their balance sheet reasons.

All taking away the back end of Dukes Court is doing is giving Wilson Bowden an extra 15,000 square feet of that prime retail space they keep banging on about. Never mind the existing prime retail space they’ll be destroying. And in the great scheme of things 15,000 square feet is not a great deal of space to lose.



And I ve not even touched on the environmental issues, traffic flow, car parking or even the cultural and arts issues. None of that has been considered in the masterplan. It’s all about prime retail and a cinema (which incidentally will now have no carpark because all the car parking spaces are to be situated around Debenhams!)

In conclusion this current masterplan is a disasterplan. Macclesfield will be split in two; a shiney new bit of modern construction buildings and a shabby old bit that used to be called the main shopping area. It is just downright offensive to try and pass this garbage off as a town centre redevelopment when it threatens to leave the majority of the existing town centre in a state of decay.

So what do we do? Well for a start join the Maxonian Society. This is a movement created to preserve the environment, arts, culture and heritage of Macclesfield. It’s for Maxonians who have pride and/or commercial interest in their town.

It’s not for large property developers with no connection to the town whose sole desire is to improve their short term profit margins at the expense of quality and long term prosperity.

Neither is it for those gullible town councillors who don’t live in the town who haven’t got the first idea about local commercial life let alone arts, culture and heritage. The Maxonian Society wants the Council s commitment to redevelop the town centre to actually mean redevelop the whole town centre not one small part of it at the expense of the rest.

It wants a town centre that allows businesses of all sizes to thrive and develop not just pandering to needs of the giants of the high street. It wants to promote all that’s good in the town, e.g. musicians past and present, artists, writers, DJs, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, sports men and women, its rich history, interesting courtyards, etc. It doesn t want a clone town and certainly doesn’t want any more new hideous architecture (i.e. in the same mould as the recent architectural delights of the Super Surgery, the Railway Stations supposed facelift or the police station extension) springing up to completely drown out the quality and characterful buildings of the town.

If you re interested in knowing more about the Maxonian Society then please contact me now, because if we do nothing we’ll end up with an almighty big mess that we and future generations of Maxonians will absolutely detest and despise.

Ronnie
ronnie@ronnies-bar.co.uk

I’m just taking a few moments out of the preparations for our latest Bank Holiday Courtyard Party and reflecting on the successful start we have made at Ronnie’s since we opened in September last year. Dukes Court is certainly a great location for a bar and so far I feel we are delivering a service that befits the surroundings. And the large numbers of people who visit the courtyard and my bar week-in-week-out are giving some substance to that belief.

Once again a first time customer came in yesterday and said that the location made him feel like he was on holiday. He wasn’t the first to say it, probably won’t be the last, but none-the-less its always pleasing to hear it.

This of course brings me back to the usual subject of these rants, why, when all around us there are countless empty properties, is Dukes Court even being considered for destruction to make way for our discount friends TJ Hughes? Dukes Court is fully occupied and trades for longer hours than any other area of the town centre.

All of the businesses in Dukes Court bar one are owned and operated by independent business owners. It is a success story amongst the perceived doom and gloom that I’ve been reading about in the Macc Express recently.

Isn’t this a message to the Council and all the doom mongers? The shape of things to come is surely encouraging independent businesses, which actually care passionately about the town they live and work in.

This will be far better for Macclesfield Town Centre rather than trying to attract more ‘big’ names of the high street that are at the beckon call of shareholders who couldn’t care less where each of their stores is located as long as they are highly profitable.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-brand, I just feel that independently owned businesses offering diversity and quality are the heartbeat of a local community and will give a town some individuality and character amongst the recognised names like M&S, Tesco, New Look, Toni & Guy, etc

The latest feedback I’ve had from Macclesfield Council (via Sir Nicholas Winterton, who also happens to like Dukes Court) is that there are no firm plans for the new town centre development, so nobody can say whether Dukes Court will be destroyed or not. And that of course is major problem facing the whole of Macclesfield Town Centre at the moment.

The uncertainty created by the constantly changing development plans is damaging the local economy because businesses are closing, prime site units are remaining empty and many people are staying away. So come on Town planners, stop dithering, make a bold decision and get on with it.

Make Macclesfield a proper market town again by putting a market back in the heart of the town centre, give us free parking to encourage more people to come into town, leave the good bits alone (and by that I mean all successful areas not just Dukes Court), redevelop the horrible bits like Craven House and encourage local entrepreneurs to fill the countless empty units that are springing up all over the town.

It’s over you Macc Council the long term economy will not benefit from big high street brands alone, it needs the individuality, local knowledge and character that only local entrepreneurs can bring to give it something that local residents can identify with and consequently support. That in turn will generate interest from outside the town and bring more people in from surrounding areas as well, which is surely what we all want, isn’t it?

Ronnie’s Rant 1 April 2008

So here at the end of the first quarter of the year and nothing has changed with the new town centre development. Dukes Court is still earmarked for destruction because, according to Wilson Bowden (the company who won the tender to develop Macclesfield), it isn’t working as a shopping and leisure destination. How wrong can they be with that! Speaking from my perspective, Ronnie’s operates from 10am in the morning until 3am the following morning. No other bar in Macclesfield operates such long hours, yet we have an excellent reputation with large numbers of discerning customers, the police and other relevant authorities because we provide a quality service, quality products and do not indulge in ridiculous price discounting .

Dukes Court as you know is one of the most beautiful courtyards in Macclesfield and really enhances the town centre. I am not alone in believing that Dukes Court would also enhance the new town centre development. However, the current town centre development plans plan to destroy this hotbed of independently owned businesses and replace it with a TJ Hughes discount store.

Wilson Bowden have explained to me, other businesses and residents on Roe Street that Dukes Court has to go because there is apparently nowhere else to relocate TJ Hughes as they have to be moved from their current site to make way for new shops and require a new site that allows them continuous trading. Apart from the fact that all the businesses in Dukes Court require continuous trading, many Maxonians completely disagree with this assumption. We believe that there are plenty of places to relocate TJ Hughes, many of which will allow the refurbishment or complete new development of some horrendous blights on the town’s architecture, such as Craven House, which quite incredibly are due to remain untouched within the new development.

Destroying Dukes Court in the first place is wrong. Destroying it to replace it with a store selling cheap Chinese imported clothes, kettles and pans compounds the error several times over. Leaving monstrosities like Craven House alone at the expense of Dukes Court just takes this whole plan off the scale when it comes to wrongness.

I and many of the independently owned businesses close to me feel that the key to saving Dukes Court from destruction is finding an alternative location for TJ Hughes to be relocated in. The aforementioned Craven House seems to fit the bill, yet Wilson Bowden won’t go anywhere near it because it is a “Crown Property” and in their words, would cost them too much money. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but surely the long term commercial future of Macclesfield would be better served by keeping the nice parts, e.g. Dukes Court, and removing the ugly parts, e.g. Craven House. Also, Craven House is, I believe, virtually empty now. This site would of course allow TJ Hughes continuous trading and at the same time allow the businesses in Dukes Court the same luxury. So with all this in mind, please could we call upon your support to protect the many independent traders who will be disrupted and possibly destroyed by the current plans just so the contractors and council can appease the demands of high street corporate giants like Debenhams and TJ Hughes? Please can we count on your support to make Wilson Bowden work harder and longer to find an alternative location for TJ Hughes? You can do this by visiting http://save.dukescourt.net and downloading a petition to register your support. Please collect as many signatures as possible and return your forms to the address on the form or drop them off at Ronnie’s Bar.

Based on the level of feeling at the recent Civic Society meeting, reading letters in the Macclesfield Express and listening to the views of many of my customers I feel there would be an enormous level of goodwill generated if we can save Macclesfield from becoming a clone of hundreds of towns all over the country, i.e. towns dominated by faceless corporate giants of the high street at the expense of local entrepreneurs. Incorporating Dukes Court into the new Macclesfield town centre would be one step towards doing this as it would be, as it is today, an oasis of thriving independent businesses providing quality alternatives to the label, brand and profits obsessed high street conglomerates that have ripped the soul out of town centres all over the country.

To promote our cause we will be embarking on a series of events that will highlight the uniqueness and beauty of Dukes Court. Each Bank Holiday over the Spring and Summer will host two day Courtyard parties. The first of these of course was over Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. The two days were a spectacular success because once again you turned up in large numbers to enjoy the special atmosphere conjured up by our resident DJs on the Sunday and the four superb local bands that played on the Monday. The event proved once again that the Macclesfield public appreciate quality and the beauty of Dukes Court. Dukes Court not working? You have to be kidding!

Ronnie’s Rant January 8, 2008

What’s really bugging me at the moment is the Macclesfield Town Centre redevelopment plans. Not the fact that the Macclesfield Council are actually planning on investing in the Town Centre, because we should be pleased that they are interested in attempting to boost civic pride and I am certainly not against progress. But the current plans do neither of those for me. Manufacturing a town centre that will be a clone of a multitude of towns across the country or even worse a mini Stockport (no offence, but not even the most avid supporters of Stockport as a town can possibly be impressed by its God-awful town centre architecture – apart from the viaduct of course which is a truly astounding structure). The current plans put forward for Macclesfield by Wilson Bowden are not good enough. They seek to destroy the good bits (e.g. Dukes Court) and retain the awful bits (e.g. Craven House) How can that be? Because apparently, Debenhams are coming and are dictating who goes where in the new town centre. Well Debenhams doesn’t boost my civic pride and forgive me but shopping in Debenhams is hardly progress either. Just because, amongst others, Jasper Conran designs a load of stuff for them doesn’t make shopping there inspiring, it just panders to the label obsessed at the expense of style and individuality. We need more independent traders and entrepreneurs in our town centre to add choice and quality amongst the corporate giants of the high street. Those that seek individuality and quality should be able to find it on their high street not just in big cities and on the internet. Anyway, below I’ve posted the recent letters I had printed in the Macclesfield Express, just to reiterate my points I suppose. I would though love to hear from anyone who agrees or even disagrees with me on this subject. Email me at info@ronnies-bar.co.uk and let me know what you think.
Anyway, just to finish off on a positive note. The Christmas and New Year holiday period was a fantastic time at Ronnie’s. There were many highlights but I suppose the ultimate was the New Year’s Eve party. The whole courtyard looked and felt superb. The atmosphere was tremendous and the night simply rocked from start to finish. The management, staff and I would like to thank you all for turning up in your numbers and making it such a great night. Saving Dukes Court will enable us to put on many more courtyard parties in the future as well as preserving a beautiful social oasis that would enhance any town centre in Europe. Happy New Year Ronnie
Letter published in the Macclesfield Express Wednesday, December 5, 2007

EDITOR – I’ve just read the latest Wilson Bowden propaganda in this week’s Macc Express and quite frankly I’m angered by it.

The Dukes Court public meeting about this development was very passionate and feelings ran high. Dukes Court as it is enhances the current town centre and will enhance any future town centre. The attached photo shows Dukes Court’s full soul & character at a peak operating time. This is not a fanciful artists impression of how it might look, this is Dukes Court now – a courtyard that would enhance any town centre in Europe let alone Macclesfield.

The glib and flippant remarks made by Emma Newman of Wilson Bowden at the Dukes Court meeting were quite astounding and require further scrutiny. How can a large corporation like Debenhams be allowed to dictate the town centre redevelopment? How can she “wish TJ Hughes would go up in a puff of smoke” then state that regardless of whether this discount store goes into Dukes Court or not they still want to knock down the heart and soul of the courtyard, i.e. the social hotbed of decent law abiding people enjoying themselves in the two bars located in the building at the back of the courtyard? How can a discount store selling cheap clothes, kettles and pans create the excitement and buzz you can feel from this picture? The answer is they can’t.

There are a multitude of places TJ Hughes can go to, many of which are huge eyesores – Craven House anybody? The arrogance of Wilson Bowden is astonishing. They just haven’t given a straight answer as to why Dukes Court, and in particular my bit of Dukes Court, is so important to the town centre redevelopment. They haven’t given a satisfactory answer as to why Debenhams say jump and they say how high? Why is Debenhams allowed to dictate where other stores are located and disrupt and possibly destroy 18 other businesses in the process? Is this a contravention of fair competition laws?

Dukes Court in its entirety should be left alone and TJ Hughes should be relocated somewhere more appropriate. Wilson Bowden must be made to work a lot harder to redevelop the plans to get rid of the many buildings that need replacing (see www.demolitionmacclesfield.co.uk) and leave Dukes Court, this fantastic bit of Macclesfield heritage, character and beauty alone.















Letter printed in Macclesfield Express Wednesday October 31, 2007:


EDITOR - With regards to the article in last week's Macc Express regarding Demolition Macclesfield, I would like to publicly add my support to Jeff Coghlan's superb initiative to raise awareness of the ugly unsightly buildings of Macclesfield that should be demolished.

I would also like to support his passion and commitment to protect the beautiful buildings and areas of character that should be saved in the face of the council's unbelievable desire to turn Macclesfield into a mini Stockport.

I would however like to take strong issue with the council spokesman who was also quoted in the article. Dukes Court does work as a speciality leisure and shopping centre. I suggest the relevant councillors and people from Wilson Bowden come and see the courtyard at all trading times, particularly on a Friday or Saturday night, and take the views of the many customers frequenting the two bars in the courtyard. They would be able to savour the fantastic atmosphere generated by hundreds of people enjoying the beautiful surroundings before firing off sweeping statements about the courtyard not working. It really does.

If the redevelopment were to go ahead as currently proposed, the council would not just be destroying 15 businesses owned and operated by Macclesfield residents, they would also be destroying an area of great character that is regularly enjoyed by many, many Maxonians each night of the week. particulalrly at weekends, and replacing it with TJ Hughes.

And it is pure folly to think that Debenhams coming to town will save the local economy. For a start we already have a Marks & Spencer's in town, yet this does not stop Maxonians from frequenting the M&S at Handforth Dean, the Trafford Centre or Manchester, their flagship stores in the region.

For the sake of everyone who lives in this town we should all be fighting tooth and nail to keep some character and individuality in our town centre and stop the short-sighted ugliness of the current redevelopment plans. Then again, the bricks from a demolished Dukes Court could be used to make a lovely viaduct!