21 July 2026
Parking - The current number of parking spaces available in the town centre is vital for Buxton as it is a rural market town with people from the surrounding area relying on personal transport. The proposed development would have a huge detrimental impact on Waitrose and the other shops in the town centre. It would be unreasonable to expect people to walk loaded trolleys, negotiating and a busy road and lift, to reach the suggested parking. How would people of reduced mobility cope with this? This may lead to the closure of vital shops such as Waitrose. The proposed remote parking behind the station was not mentioned in the original proposal and no planning permission has been applied for it. This Parking is not assured and would involve the destruction of protected trees and habitat. Architecture - The proposed architecture is completely out of character with the Georgian and Victorian aesthetic of Buxton. This will ruin the centre our historic spa town, a spa town that people visit to be immersed in the historical ambience not a modern housing estate. Loss of Key Shops - being a relatively remote town, certain shops and businesses, such as Next and Nationwide, are key to the running of daily life. We have already lost Conway's, a very important hardware store, due to the loss of the lease in anticipation of the development and resulting in redundancy of staff and leaving the residents of Buxton requiring a car to obtain hardware goods. Services - the proposed development would put a huge strain on local amenities which are already under pressure with the recent loss of local hospital facilities. The new housing at Harper Hill is already increasing demand on doctors surgeries, dentistry access and school places. Housing - such a large increase in housing is likely to accommodate people commuting into Manchester, puttng further strain on the Buxton rail service, the only viable way for many of the young people of Buxton to access sixth form education. The work and social lives of such commuters is likely to be in central Manchester, therefore, leading to little participation in Buxton local community life. This gentrification will be adverse to the wellbeing of the current residents of Buxton. Scale - the scale of the proposed development is inappropriate for central Buxton. My understanding is that the central funding for this project is to support the regeneration of the high street, not the building of a modern housing estate in the middle of a spa town. [Page 2] The funding is intended to support the building of about 70 new homes. Capital and Centric's proposal has increased this, without proper consultation, to 322 homes in the very centre of our spa town, a development which would detrimentally alter the very nature of Buxton. Furthermore, Capital and Centric's assumption that only 50% of the new occupants will own a car is ridiculous and create further impact on the loss of carparking, which is vital to the local residents and tourists alike.