22 June 2026
I oppose the planning application as it currently stands, but feel the area needs the redevelopment but in a much reduced scale. I feel the buildings in the plan will appear over bearing and too generic for the Georgian and Victorian low level buildings that currently stand. I think there will be too many apartments for the town. There is too little provision for parking- for proposed residents of new accommodation, town residents and visitors alike. As the plan is I can see it kill the town- many residents use the car park with their HPBC permits- this helps shoppers and keeps the town in business. The first plans included provision for the library and museum and art gallery. Is this actually going to happen? How can you guarantee adequate space for these much missed services in the heart of town? This is not transparent. If you are offering space for them - please tell us exactly what we'll get. Alternative parking proposed by HPBC to mitigate loss for Spring Gardens car park is too far away for many and will destroy woodland. Parking needs to be close to Waitrose- otherwise we will lose another supermarket to an out of town location. I do think your plan to pedestrianise a link from the station to Spring gardens is good - or at least reconfigure this area to make it attractive. I also think redeveloping the Springs shopping centre is needed. But what is C&C doing to prevent the loss of anchor stores such as Next, New Look and Waitrose? This plan has not given enough consideration to how remote Buxton is, how poor and slow our public transport links are, how prohibitively expensive the train service is and how the majority of us unfortunately rely on cars. This plan does not include improvements to Spring Gardens itself- which looks tatty and tired. I think it should include developing the space above current shops instead of building new. [Page 2] I also think it is misleading for C&C to say the River Wye will be opened up, when in fact no further part of the underground river will be exposed, although landscaping the sides of the river would be a huge improvement.