Update issued on new £60m Stockport town centre neighbourhood

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Work on a "buzzing" new £60 million neighbourhood centred around a historic mill in Stockport is set to start next month, it has been announced. Plans for the transformation of Weir Mill on King Street West on the banks of the River Mersey - hailed as a "cornerstone" of the £1billion town centre transformation -were given the go-ahead last Autumn.

They include 253 new flats, 87 of which will be within the existing mill buildings with 167 in two new-build blocks.

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There will also be spaces for indie businesses including bars, restaurants, cafés and shops and a new square with space for riverside street markets, DJ sets, live music events and performing arts which it is said will "establish a new leisure and culture destination" on the western edge of the town centre.

The plans for the mill, parts of which date back to the 1700s, have been brought forward by developer Capital & Centric (C&C) and are backed by Stockport Council and the Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation.

Capital & Centric - whose founder Tim Heatley starred in the BBC documentary Manctopia - has worked on previous mill restoration and re-purposing projects such as Kampus next to Manchester's Gay Village.

While the plans have been widely welcomed, the inclusion of a 14-storey apartment block has proven controversial, with campaigners saying it will obscure views of the town’s landmark viaduct.

More than 4,000 people signed a 'don’t hide the viaduct’ petition while the Victorian Society and Save Britain’s Heritage both opposed the tower element of the plans. However, the plans were approved by Stockport Council's planning committee last October.

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