When I read the Guardian front page headline last week about a town centre masterplan and the impressive statements by our esteemed councillors, my memory went back to early 2013 when similar spoofery was being spun by council bigwigs about the soon to be glorious Barons Quay development.

There was to be no end to the good times that the town would enjoy after the big name retailers, who were allegedly dribbling with anticipation, opened their shops in Northwich.

Here are a couple of quotes from a council executive and a councillor from the Guardian of March 23, 2013: ‘This is a totally commercially driven scheme, a real scheme with real occupiers’ and ‘This will not only cause the revival of the town but provide employment for surrounding towns and villages’.

Yep, they actually said that.

From what I read last week, it is very obvious that the council has not learned much over the past five years and I would like to express a few thoughts which are intended to be helpful.

First, the council is engaging, yet again, in a pretence of meaningful consultation with the public.

Their online consultation website, which I tried, is vague and simplistic and not fit for purpose.

There will be just one drop-in session in the town on June 20 starting at 3pm and finishing at 6.30pm so too bad if you work a long day or have caring responsibilities on that particular date.

Again on consultation, CWAC intends to use data from a survey it conducted in 2016.

In terms of the fast changing retail environment, that is Stone Age and cannot be reliable particularly in view of recent actual experience in Barons Quay and high streets generally.

The council is also in danger of failing to take account of significant trends as it did when it ignored the potential impact of internet shopping on Barons Quay.

This time it’s the fundamental effects of rapidly developing information technology on banks, building society premises and estate agents, most of which will disappear from Witton Street and High Street within the next few years.

The council should be planning for that now, particularly the opportunity it would present for opening out the river frontage that is hidden behind the banks in High Street.

The stuff about ‘a sense of arrival at Northwich’ is just laughable particularly as the council told us a while back that most visitors would arrive via the new, very expensive ‘magic roundabout’ at the top of Chesterway and that was the justification for spending £4 million on it.

They can’t have it both ways.

It is noticeable that the council dares not give even an approximate cost of what the new development might cost or where the money will come from.

We all want the best for Northwich and it is diabolical that the golden opportunity to transform Northwich that we had back in 2012/13 was frittered away by municipal and political incompetence. It must not happen again.

Liam Byrne

Little Leigh