'Town has potential but needs a plan... you can't just let it rot'

Locals say a dispute over an empty building is delaying a brighter future for Droylsden town centre

- GEORGE LYTHGOE

JUST a few tram stops away from Manchester city centre sits a town crying out for a change of fortune. What's holding it back is a dispute over an empty building.

Once you step off the tram into Droylsden one of the first sights you will see is The Silly Country, a bustling bar in the shadow of the Concord Suite building. Beyond Silly Country there's an abundance of shop shutters down in what was once a bustling precinct.

Nicholas Brogdale told the Manchester Evening News: "The owners of the shops have hiked up the rent... "The tram stop is a good asset. People can get off, go down this corridor of shops but they probably go back on the tram pretty quickly. It's sad. "It has the potential to be made into something, but what do you do? The market days are gone, you need to plan for the future, you can't just let it rot."

Coun Barrie Holland claimed around 70 per cent of shops in Droylsden have closed down and sit empty.

Former council leader and fellow Droylsden West councillor Ged Cooney agrees with the local consensus that something needs to happen. But there is a sticking point that needs to be overcome before real change can happen.

The vacant Concord Suite is in the heart of the shopping precinct, but it's also the source of the town's problem. The retail units that protrude from the building, which once housed the defunct Droylsden Council, have been kept empty on purpose.

This is because the owner of the shopping centre, New Era, are still battling with the council over what to do with it. It is understood that the council owns the inside of the Concord building - which New Era is trying to take control of - and New Era owns the units underneath it.