Planning Minister Nick Boles today visited Marple to speak with Chair of Marple Civic Society, Gillian Postill and Prospective Conservative MP William Wragg about the issues affecting Marple town centre and how sensible development can enhance the town centre.
Commenting on the visit, Gillian Postill, said: ‘By coming to Marple and meeting with us, the visit enabled us to demonstrate that civic societies are not just about protesting. We support a town centre foodstore and view it as a significant regeneration opportunity to breathe life back into the town which, frankly, is in decline. However, we believe the supporting traffic management scheme is not good enough. Our aim is to make Marple a people friendly place but the development is mainly just focused on cars. We were glad to be able to share this with the Minister who was clearly interested in what we had to say”.
The visit was an opportunity for the Planning Minister to meet Marple Civic Society to talk about development within the Marple area.
Planning Minister, Nick Boles MP said 'The visit offered me an opportunity to learn more about Marple and to discuss with the local community the issues affecting them. I strongly believe that communities will support new development when it is of a high enough quality and well thought out. It is good to see the local civic society making its voice heard. I look forward to hearing how things progress in Marple.”
Prospective Conservative MP William Wragg said, “I am pleased that the Minister agreed to come and visit Marple and hear both the concerns and the aims of Gillian and the Civic Society. Any development in Marple town centre must enhance the area and be in the interests of local residents and businesses.”
Gillian Postill said: “Marple is one of the best places in the world, and Marple Civic Society is proud to be the civic society for the area. However, our mission is to make Marple an even better place to live. We are not against development, indeed, we welcome the foodstore development but we only want development that will enhance Marple and make it an even greater place to live. We are glad the Minister wants to be kept informed and we will certainly keep him updated.”
Her sentiments were echoed by Freddie Gick, Chair of Civic Voice, ‘Marple Civic Society are right to voice their concerns to the Minister. Civic societies are not against development, in fact we support high quality development that is well thought out and enhances a local area, but the development in question does not seem to do this. We hope individuals who can influence this traffic management scheme can come together to create something that is fitting for Marple.’