Town leaders set out plans to bring Buxton's high street back to life

High Peak Borough Council developed their plans working with property owners, potential commercial tenants and community groups after winning a share of government funding worth £1 billion.

In July last year they were one of just 50 other towns to receive money to develop their proposals from the Future High Street Fund (FHSF).

Councillor Damien Greenhalgh, deputy leader of the council, told how they had created a plan to “ensure thriving towns and villages across the High Peak”.

He said: “High streets and town centres across the country are changing due to the way that people live their lives and how they spend their money.

“Town centres are having to adapt their focus to providing a much wider variety of uses and experiences which will bring people into the town centre - including leisure, office workspace and residential.

“We have a plan to ensure thriving towns and villages across the High Peak and that means re-thinking how people move around and enjoy being in them to create environments that people want to live, work and spend leisure time in.

“These proposals set out initial ideas for how we might achieve this and we’re excited to share them with people to see what they think.

“Please come along to these exhibitions and tell us your views.”

The second phase of FHSF is a very competitive stage where towns apply for funding to implement their proposals - which have to focus on how space can be converted for new uses to transform the town centre and cannot be used for retail development.

No guarantee has been given that Buxton will secure this funding and the proposals will also require substantial investment from the private sector and the councils themselves.

Buxton’s bid will be submitted at the end of April and a decision is expected in the autumn.

They will be on view at the Springs Shopping Centre between 10am and 2pm on February 1 and between 1pm and 4pm on February 10.