Following Chief Executive Eamonn Boylan’s presentation to Marketing Stockport members last week, Stockport Councillor Iain Roberts has published a summary and update of events & developments planned and underway in and around Stockport.
Market and Underbanks
The Portas Pilot bid focussed on Stockport’s historic market and Underbanks – a fantastic environment that’s underperformed. Three events were funded in the run up to Christmas – two from Portas money and one direct from the Council. The events were very different to each other and all three brought people many people to the market area who hadn’t been before: What the Dickens, Winter Wassale and the Market traders’ event with ice rink and donkey rides.
Several new shops have opened up in the Underbanks and work is underway to attract new users to the buildings around the historic marketplace and to examine ways to improve the market; the special events in the marketplace, like Vintage Village, are proving popular.
Car parking
Following the introduction of RingGo – allowing people to pay for parking by web, text, phone or smartphone app in addition to putting change in the meter, more people have been parking in Stockport over the last year.
A multi-million pound project to improve Merseyway car park is currently underway including maintaining the structure and making the car park brighter, safer and more pleasant to park in.
Town Team projects
The Town Team has invited everyone to come forward with projects to help the town. In addition to the pre-Christmas events, a digital projector at the Plaza has got the go-ahead. A number of other projects are being worked on and the Town Team is currently procuring a website for the town. Town Team funding is available for approved projects. Find out more here
Promoting Stockport
Stockport’s got a lot to offer with some fantastic shops, cafes, restaurants, museums, heritage, events and more. We want to get the message out there and are promoting events online, working with local media partners.
Signing Stockport
Improved signage is planned to better guide visitors whether on foot, bike or car and to connect areas of Stockport. For instance, that the Underbanks and Marketplace are just a few yards away form Merseyway and well worth a visit too. Assisting movement around the town, the MetroShuttle is a free bus taking people to key locations around the Town Centre and running every 12 minutes.
Developing Stockport
The Bridgefield development on the current surface car parks parallel to Princes Street aims to bring a cinema, restaurants, hotel and larger retail units to the heart of the town. Stockport Council own the freehold to the Debenhams building and improvements to that are planned and to Princes Street.
The work at Grand Central is underway with construction of a new 1,000 place multi-storey car park and cycle park due to start around the end of February.
A full summary of the update can be found at http://iainroberts.mycouncillor.org.uk/