QUESTIONS have been raised over the future of Middlewich’s high street as yet another property is seeking to convert to residential use.

The owners of the property on Wheelock Street, which was most recently a café, have applied for planning permission to change its use from commercial to residential.

With the former café set to become a residential property, just weeks after historic Middlewich jewellers Brooks and Bostock applied for the same change of use permission, residents are worried they will lose their town centre for good. 

One resident, Alan Langley, can remember when the number of shops in Middlewich amounted to 200 but said he is now forced out of the town to go shopping. 

Alan said: “There was around 200 shops and businesses here at one time and now we’re down to half a dozen. 

“It was always busy, people in Middlewich would all go down town for their shopping but now we have to go elsewhere.

“I still try to buy what I can down town but most of the time I have to go to Crewe, Northwich and Winsford.” 

Middlewich town clerk Jonathan Williams agrees that it is a problem and said it is something that the council will try to incorporate in the Neighbourhood Plan. 

Jonathan said: “Like everything else, there needs to be a balance. We can’t just keep letting Wheelock Street go residential and letting it flitter away one by one. 

“We need to do further work, we recognise that there is a lot of land available from the Tesco land that’s now being freed up and we can maybe utilise that. 

“It’s something that we will pick up on the Neighbourhood Plan process.”

Despite the concern that the number of shops on Wheelock Street is dwindling, Middlewich Heritage officer Kerry Fletcher says the street has always been more residential. 

Kerry said: “We’ve been doing a lot of research looking at the censuses for Middlewich dating back to the 1800’s and it shows that Wheelock Street has actually always been more residential.

“There were businesses but they were more like workshops and smithy’s rather than shops as you’d think, the main area for them was around the church.

“We have lost a lot of shops, like in the 1920’s just one demolition took out 86 shops. But it happened in all towns because the roads were too narrow when cars started to come in and that’s when St Michael’s Way was born.”

“The high street has always ebbed and flowed and it is demoralising when you see shops turning into houses but the last thing we want is empty buildings and there’s nothing to stop them from turning back into shops.”