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Macclesfield Hospital Blue Zone - Have your say.
I have started this page to help concerned local people to find information about the Macclesfield Hospital Blue Zone as and when i find out the information myself - something which is not proving easy. This page will also allow those with a voice to speak up about the proposals at the Macclesfield Hospital Blue Zone as well as give their opinions on the proposals for turning the old clock tower and surrounding buildings into Keyworker homes for staff at the hospital. Information is currently very limited but is listed in reverse date order with the latest first. October 2009 Latest News, Planning Permission Granted, See link below and work is set to start on the 10th January. I only found out today by reading a small piece on the Cheshire County Council website! Did they keep this quiet or have I just not been looking hard enough? Parking problems have been addressed according to the link below and this is why planning permission was granted, however I wait to see if the volume of parked cars goes up around the hospital. A revised site plan can be found here A link to the developers CGI image of what the finished development will look like can be found here The site at the moment is a mess, with Vandalism, Criminal damage to the buildings and Grafitti meaning all windows on the lower levels have been boarded up to prevent further damage. (See pictures below) July 2009 - Latest planning documents Viewable here
March 23rd 2009 - Flyer for consultation event with revised proposals. Flyer is available to download here: As a PDF File (406kbytes): march-blue-zone-flyer.pdf As a JPeG image (351kbytes): march-blue-zone-flyer.jpg Flyer reads as follows: Macclesfield District General Hospital Your Opinions for the site will be welcome. Tuesday 31st March - 4pm to 7pm If you are unable to attend the consultation you will be able to view the latest proposals at: www.keyworkerhomesltd.co.uk/bluezone where you will also have the opportunity to leave comments. The Clocktower Building, Macclesfield Hospital Page 2 can be viewed off the links above and gives and overview of serives and the Trusts objectives. More information on this can be found on the East Cheshire NHS Trust website: http://www.eastcheshire.nhs.uk/BZ/BlueZone.html New Proposals Link to page containing all information and links: http://www.keyworkerhomesltd.co.uk/new-projects.html Link to main site proposals: http://www.keyworkerhomesltd.co.uk/pdf/bluezone.pdf Link to parking issues addendum: http://www.keyworkerhomesltd.co.uk/pdf/bluezone2.pdf Link to Design and Access Statement: http://www.keyworkerhomeltd.co.uk/pdf/4269_D_A_Statement_081208_Final_copy_lowers.pdf
Macclesfield Express Article Mar 4th 2009 Hospital bosses should think again - Barlows brief
Macclesfield Express Article Jan 28th 2009 Hospital bosses ‘money driven’ over Blue Zone
Other Links to related pages Macclesfield Council Blue Zone Planning Brief page, Dec 2007 - HTML link Original Planning Brief for Macclesfield Hospital Blue Zone, Nov 2007 - PDF file
My views on the Blue Zone However my main concern is the aftermath of the work to be done at the Blue Zone, mainly to do with hospital parking. Those who live close to the hospital I am sure will know exactly what I mean by this as parking for the hospital, by visitors and staff alike impact on the people who live round there on a daily basis. Since the introduction of parking fees at Macclesfield Hospital the volume of traffic parked on Victoria Road, Fieldbank Road and the Prestbury road area has increased dramatically and with a greater risk factor being taken in the position and location of these vehicles. The appointment of parking attendants and parking fines for incorrect parking on the hospital land has done nothing to alleviate the problem. In fact I would say its made things worse for the local community because people are now more likely to park on the surrounding roads than park in the hospital grounds. In the initial plans for the Blue Zone the parking areas around the Blue Zone would have been lost and thus placing greater pressure on the rest of the already overflowing hospital parking system. I note that in the latest round of Blue Zone plans that this has been addressed by adding parking in the areas around the blue zone in areas where existing buildings built in the 60/70s which will be pulled down. There is also a proposal on the table to build a multi storey car park on the hospital grounds, however I doubt if this is anything more than a proposal but will eat my words if its actually built. I also wonder if it is to be built whether it will be built before or after other building work on the site. Before would be ideal, after would put more cars on the surrounding roads during the progress of works plus where are all the building contractors going to park? I still dont think either of these will end the parking problems as long as pay per park is in operation especially for staff who are the main abusers of off site parking with the same cars parked on Victoria and Fieldbank road day after day and some even with staff parking permits in the windows. With regard to the building works to be undertaken on the blue zone site, I am torn between what is there now and what is already happening to it and the proposals of what it will be. The buildings which are there now are all empty and have been since february, since then the vandalism of the area has accelerated with smashed windows, door panels and graffiti. The longer the buildings are empty the more the this is going to happen, so do we want a run down, vandalised, sh*t hole on our door step or something with a few buildings we might not like, but nice and shiny? Personally after a lot of thought id rather have the latter as the vandalism seems to be accelerating recently. (Sept 2009, all the lower floor windows are now boarded, see photos below) There is however one other thing about this development which I think in the short and possibly long term is going to be detremental to the town as a whole is the new entrance to the blue zone site. The plans propose to make an additional entrance to the site at the Cumberland St - Prestbury Road junction roundabout, which seems like lunacy when you consider how much of a bottle neck this already is during rush hour! I am told the roundabout will be moved to make space for this, my reply to this was that I would like to know when this will happen so I can be on holiday that week, as its going to cause traffic chaos with such a prominent route through town temporarily blocked. (remember the traffic light replacement near Sainsburys? - traffic backed up past Broken Cross all day long) Thats my thoughts on the subject, lets see what happens and post your comments below.
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