CHRIS McGarrigle has decades of experience working in the property market. He knows what makes town centres tick and he says he is dismayed at Crewe's current plight. The property consultant is urging a radical rethink of redevelopment and is pessimistic that the flagship Royal Arcade development will ever see the light of day. He writes for Nub News about why Crewe needs to go back to basics.

As retail rents have now fallen below their 1987 values, there is little if no chance the anticipated retail scheme (Royal Arcade) will ever see the light of day as build cost continue to rise. Cheshire East has been painfully slow with the procurement of the development of the town centre, as well as the Modus scheme that preceded it. Now time has eventually run out, but will Cheshire East pay any attention?

The scheme was justified and promoted on two conditional lettings, one from a cinema operator and the other Hollywood Bowl which always puzzled the people of Crewe as the recent existing Bowl had recently closed its doors.

Another cinema in such a small town was always going to be a little ambitious and was unlikely to be built without the rest of the scheme taking more defined form. The justification of this current scheme was based on a report prepared by Knight Frank, retail experts.

That report sits along with various others gathering dust at Cheshire East by Urbed, Gillespies, and White Young Green. It has literally spent thousands of pounds on retail impact studies over the years - the result, nothing but dereliction and decay and retail closures. Covid-19 has ensured several other shops will not be opening again.

Crewe is a shadow of what it was like when I was growing up. I remember fondly the bustling market, Densems Sports Shop, Macfisheries, Chelsea Girl and SMC. My good friend Albert used to run Posters on Victoria Street and of course there was Tartan Tea Rooms in the Old Co-op.

We always take a submissive role, Nantwich takes a dominant role, creating community events, like the Food and Drink Festival and the Jazz and Blues, led by the community. Crewe has never fought back.

As we all know traditional retail has virtually dried up, and the pandemic has now sealed the fate of the current scheme in Crewe. We have seen weekly CVAs of long-established retailers over the last few months, and closures on the Grand Junction Retail Park of Crewe's new restaurant scene, never to open again.

How times have changed in a short space of time. We can't put the blame at anybody's door as we all shop online. The purpose of the town centre has changed and Crewe's is no exception. But it didn't happen overnight, that's the bit that annoys me and we should have been more prepared with fluid plans.

Retail has been steadily moving online since 2003, we all saw it coming. It was foolhardy and naive to think the current retail scheme was going to be built in any event. It has adapted over the last years to become a "leisure scheme", but sadly that market has also disappeared too.

The scheme will never see the light of day and Cheshire East needs to bold enough to admit it and move on with a deliverable product for the benefit of the town and be "HS2 ready".

So, what's next?

Cheshire East needs to be flexible in its approach and creative with a new inclusive vision. It bought the site in April 2015, overpaying at £6m, and it has taken a myopic view of what a town centre should look like. It has been slow to react as retail ecosystems has moved. It needs to take the lead and actually lead a new direction.

For a Master Project I am doing, my research is showing that customers undeniably want a shopping experience, artisan products, locally sourced and sold by independent retailers, especially the emerging Generation Zs and Millennials. If we don't satisfy what they want they will simply shop more online.

They want goods sourced sustainably, with reduced food miles and a provenance to shout about. They are also less likely to shop post Covid-19 in town centres but will engage with something that attracts their interest. We have to work hard for that and work hard to keep them engaged.

What does this mean for Crewe?

An architect friend asked if Cheshire East was actually knocking down the "brutalist 1960's parade" to make way for a carbon copy of the scheme in Northwich. I confirmed they were and he confirmed that it was of significant architectural importance, it was retail of its time and should possibly be listed.

We seem to have come full circle with retail and now is the perfect time to reinvent what we already have and build on the existing fabric, a far more sustainable option, rather than create a pastiche of an uninspiring scheme a mere 15 miles away in Northwich, the one that Cheshire West can't let.

If I had a hotline to the City Fathers, if they exist, at Cheshire East, I would refurbish the existing structure, strip them back to the concrete and provide new shop fronts and services. Then run a competition inviting start up retailers to take a unit at nil rent, the success would be based on the originality and creativeness of the proposed retail.

This is actually something I proposed to Cheshire East five years ago when it took ownership, instead it systematically booted the retailers out, ready for demolition, the irony is not lost.

Once these units are all let, and I am sure they will be, Crewe will be vibrant and bustling. Build the new station, god we need it, but forget the new car park and push for more active travel into Crewe. Try and attract the local community, forget the traditional drive times, aim at the community that will use the town, not the occasional visitors from Chester or Stoke.

The newly refurbished Market Hall will not survive unless we can create some footfall. It may be £3 million wasted unless we take a holistic approach about the connectivity in the town. Perhaps we can look at a container village on the old bus station as a Phase 2?

I want to live in a town with a vibrant town centre, I have envy when other towns have artisan bread shops, cheese shops, local coffee shops and locally run restaurants. It doesn't need to be pretty, just interesting and vibrant. Cheshire East needs to be creative, flexible and move quickly, the good folk of Crewe can't wait another 20 years for HS2 to arrive, can we?