CHURCH STREET ECCLES SET FOR MASSIVE CHANGE

This is the end, beautiful friend, my only friend the end as Jim Morrison so nearly sang...

Booths Store on Church Street, Eccles along with the adjoining Top House pub and Scope Charity Shop will be demolished within the next 14 days and replaced with interlinking blocks of four, six and 23.....yes that's correct, 23 storey buildings consisting of 272, one, two and three bedroomed apartments.

I spoke to a site agent today who told me that workmen were in the empty buildings and were ripping out the interiors prior to demolition and hopefully ground work would start on the project which is expected to take some three years to complete at an expected cost in excess of £40M.

Speculation has been rife for several years about the site and who the developers are, I did hear stories of a Chinese consortium buying the land and the empty site on Albert Street of the old Vauxhall garage showroom.

As to be expected, opinion is divided about the new housing with critics describing  the proposed tower an 'eyesore' and a 'monstrosity' and say the council is 'destroying the heart of Eccles'.

Others are welcoming the investment into the town with this being just one of the comments, 

"If this tower brings in the young professionals with some income to spend then maybe the shopping centre will be invested in and maybe some new bars and restaurants will open.".

The site it has to be said is handy for all transport links with tram, railway and the M602 Motorway on the doorstep, but I do have reservations about parking spaces, admittedly I haven't seen the plans for the building which will have hopefully have taken this matter into consideration.

It's only early days as of yet, so lets see how it progresses but I am certain it's bound to create a heated argument  amongst concerned locals and those eager to see progress in the town centre.

This will run and run...