Grand Central

Unlike most of the visions for Stockport Town Centre, Grand Central did actually get built. On the positive side, Grand Central Pools is a first-class facility, both for the people of the Borough, and those from further away. A town centre cinema is always a good thing, and the bowling alley is a good place for families, family leisure facilities being something we are quite short of.

On the downside, Grand Central has never worked as a whole. Partly this was down to poor planning - the blank back of it is the first thing most people see when they leave Stockport Railway Station. The access into the development isn't clear, so most visitors walk round it.

Perhaps this is just as well - particularly during the day, the main walkway resembles a ghost town, lined as it is with boarded-up bars and nightclubs and empty shops. The licensed premises of Grand Central became a magnet for anti-social behaviour before they were finally closed down.

The vision for Grand Central includes:

• New restaurants and cafes
• 200 new homes
• A new hotel
• New offices
• New shops
• A 1,500 space car park.

You can read more about the developer's vision for the site (with pictures) here: http://www.grandcentralstockport.com/index.asp

Construction was supposed to have started in Autumn 2007 (i.e well before the current recession started). According to the developer's website, it is supposed to be finished by "Autumn 2009/Spring 2010" which is odd, because as you can see in the picture below, nothing has happened!

There is some good news - in July 2009, Travelodge announced that they will run the much-needed hotel at the site, when it actually gets built. However, there is no indication of when building will start, or whether occupiers can be found for the rest of the site, which is looking increasingly bleak as tenants continue to move out.

Stockport Labour councillors are fully behind the redevelopment of Grand Central, but we need to see some action. The owners of the site have recently stuck pictures of the proposed development over the windows of some of the empty shops but this isn't a substitute for action. Like the ill-fated Bridgefield scheme, the Grand Central re-development involves building around 200 flats. We aren't convinced that there is the demand for this sort of city-centre flat, and demand for office space in the Town Centre continues to be linited.

The Lib Dems need to stop trying to take credit for things that haven't even been built yet, and start working with the developers to bring forward more realistic proposals, so that something can finally be done with this grot spot at a key gateway to Stockport.