Demolition work on Crewe's Royal Arcade is due to start within weeks, which is good news for those desperate to see the start of town centre regeneration. But others remain sceptical as to how long that might take, while the loss of the town's landmark clock tower, 'Big Bill', is a bitter pill to swallow. Stoke-on-Trent urban regeneration consultant Dave Proudlove offers a different view.

When local authorities talk about regeneration plans people don't expect the plans to drag on for a generation. But when it comes to Crewe town centre, that's not far off where we're at.

There has been talk now for over a decade about major redevelopment at the heart of the town, but until now, it has just been that – talk. However, a few years back, Cheshire East Council acquired the Royal Arcade with a view to demolishing it and bringing forward a large retail and leisure scheme as well as the redevelopment of the garish bus station.

The council subsequently appointed a development partner, Peveril Securities, who, on their appointment back in 2016, stated that their scheme would be completed by Christmas 2020, ensuring that the town centre, in the council's words, would be "HS2 ready".

Well, with just a couple of months or so to go, it'd be fair to say that the developers' timetable looks a tad ambitious.

The business case for the kind of scheme proposed was fragile at best thanks to the shifts in retail trends and town centre activities, and Covid-19 has just about finished it off.

So you would think that the sensible thing to do would be to pause, take stock and come up with an alternative. People would not be too hard on the council for doing so.

However, they are about to proceed with the demolition of the Royal Arcade – contractors are expected on site within a few weeks. Yet the contract with Peveril Securities has still not been signed, despite the big announcements four years ago.

And so by early next year, Crewe town centre will be left with a great hole in the ground, and no plan to deal with it.

This is an extremely worrying spectre and leaves you wondering what the solution for Crewe might be. And yet this doesn't need to be the case.

The most sensible solution, at least in the short-term, would be to work with what's there. Fill the Royal Arcade with life for a while. Give space away to artists and creatives, community groups and young entrepreneurs – until we know what the new normal will actually look like.

Who knows, town centre businesses of the future could spin out of it.

One of the saddest aspects of the planned demolition of the Royal Arcade is that it will see the loss of one of the town centre's few remaining heritage assets.

The Royal Arcade was built during the 1950s in the Modernist style and oozes post-war optimism, and at its heart is 'Big Bill', the iconic clock tower which acts as a way-finder for those who arrive in Crewe by train. It will be a terrible loss for the town.

Given the current context, the last thing that Crewe town centre needs right now is a big hole in the ground, yet that's what it'll be facing very soon.

The council may say that it has a strategy, but it's no good saying that when hard realities have blown great big holes in it.