Public Realm

Policies and strategies play an important role in providing a framework for the design and development our the public realm in our towns and villages. Documents of relevance include Conservation Area appraisals, Parish Plans, Local Plan policy, and supplementary planning guidance.

The public realm the streets and places of our urban centres is an important part of the civic experience, as well as the buildings, structures and architectural monuments. The spaces between the buildings are dynamic elements that have a distinct and unique identity, whether they are spaces to move through, such as streets, or spaces to gather in, such as squares. One of the important roles of the public realm is to act as a "mat" that helps to bring together the old and the new enhancing the legibility and cohesiveness of our town centres.

Macclesfield Town Centre Public Realm Strategy

In 2007, Macclesfield Borough Council recognised the benefits to the town of delivering a considered and appropriate public realm strategy for the town centre. Despite past investment into the public realm, it has been acknowledged that a clearly defined framework for the future and on-going development of the public realm was required in order to best guide and focus future investment into the town centre streets and public spaces. This need is particularly relevant given the current interest in redeveloping a significant proportion of the Town Centre.

A Public Realm Strategy  has been produced to guide the development of Macclesfield’s public realm space and was adopted by Macclesfield Borough Council on June 2007, now Cheshire East. This strategy provides the framework to inform and steer the enhancement of Macclesfield’s town centre public realm as an introduction to the development of a more detailed design coding document  which will consider design detailing, location of a hierarchy of design styles and other features in relation to constraints. It will also stand as a wider reference document that can inform other strategies that may be developed within Cheshire East.

To see a digital version of the full strategy please download all the PDF files from the following links:

Macclesfield Town Centre Public Realm Strategy documents

• Public Realm Strategy Introduction (PDF, 2MB)
• Public Realm Strategy - Purpose (PDF, 7MB)
• Setting the Scene (PDF, 3MB)
• Public Realm Strategy 1 (PDF, 5MB)
• Public Realm Strategy 2 (PDF, 4MB)
• Public Realm Strategy 3 (PDF, 3MB)
• Sketch Proposals (PDF, 2MB)

Page last reviewed: 09 August 2021