Salford readies bulldozers for Eccles Shopping Centre regen

Eccles the next to gentrify. Get in whilst you can. Fantastically located with great transport links.

It needs to be sympathetic to some of the old buildings.Eccles Cross.Parish church.Pubs.Old converted cinema.Its not good enough just to flatten everything and create other problems.Eccles people need to b involved.Successful outlets should be rehomed and a large vibrant indoor outdoor market created again .What about a good bakery creating Eccles Cakes.Let them come home.

How about demolishing the Civic centre council chambers.They also aren’t fit for purpose!!

Gentrification completed …

it needs new life into it its sad to go there and see how it is to what it used to be

Let’s hope lessons can be learned from the “regeneration” of walkden shopping precinct, where “regeneration” has left over 50 percent of new units vacant.

Shame they can’t do the same with Swinton Precinct shops are closing daily and the boarded up Lancastrian Hall is an eyesore.

How terribly sad for those of us from Eccles to see the character of a once thriving busy town demolished taking with it a community where people actually talked to each other and enjoyed it! Those of us old enough to remember will always mourn the passing of the character of Eccles and the characters long forgotten. Sadly replaced by a meaningless emptiness which is only relevant to the developer’s who do not live in Eccles.

Bring some of the little shops back. A butcher’s, a fish shop, a greengrocers with fresh veg ( not like the supermarket where most thing start going off before you get home) and a bakery for instance. Do not charge absorbitant rents. You can not make money out of empty properties.

Totally agree with the council the area needs to be regenerated. Maybe we can have a permaculture centre incorporated in the scheme and we defo need an area for worship, maybe a Masjid designed fot the cohesion of the community.
Masjid is a much more than just a place to pray, it brings communities togeather of different backgrounds and has no prejudices.

Should the Council, who overpaid of this asset, really be doing the job of commercial developers?

It’s about time, with the amount of transport links eccles have, that place has so much potential. They should flatten everything and revamp the whole town

Salford shopping centre / Swinton precinct / Eccles precinct should be used for housing and Salford Quays should be made the ‘hub’ of all Salford. It becomes a centre for all & the council can keep their eye on it. Currently all we have is small ghetto areas.

I live in Eccles. Over the years Eccles has deteriorated to the point of a ghost town. Knocking the shopping center down and building flats is becoming a normality. We have lost graded buildings again for flats and houses. While Salford has flourished the rents for shops in Eccles has risen and the shopkeepers will be the 1st to say the rents were hiked massively. As for the state and appearance of Eccles center isn’t that the responsibility of the local coumcil?

This has been a long time coming and is well needed. The car park was in a state of disrepair over 10 years ago and leaking water into the shops below. The precinct in a ghost town with only a few shops remaining. People are understandably upset for the old Eccles lost but this isn’t coming back and the new Eccles is the future – hopefully the developers will listen to local people when developing the new Eccles so that is ends up being a decent place to live work and play. Also Eccles train service needs reviewing – 1 train to piccadilly an hour is not on – this should be minimum 2 / 3 an hour at peak times!

Bring back our Market Town, never the same since. Morrisons&Bus Station ruined Eccles character plus Precinct. Local people let down badly with all that Eccles known for being removed. Does not give confidence for what is to come.

Eccles is an untapped resource. The high street could be quaint. The precinct is an eyesore and thankfully they are getting rid. There is good housing stock for families in Eccles and it is blessed with Monton Green and Worsley on its doorstep . It should be the next in place.

Hopefully some shops will remain along with bars and restaurants. Let’s make Eccles fab again

I welcome this development like a rusty nail in the head. More traffic congestion, more southern migration while they clear London for the rich.

Great in principle, like most plans, but I still think much of this new development will just end up as empty and unused as it is now…

It’s such a shame Eccles was a great place to shop it had a great market let’s hope it will be a great place again

I thought that Eccles had been awarded £10 million from the government not £5.4.

Hi David. Our understanding is that the council was given £5.4m https://www.salford.gov.uk/your-council/news/news-archive/news-from-march-2023/eccles-town-centre-regeneration-to-receive-funding-boost/. I have reached out to the council to confirm. Thanks, Dan

April 12, 2024 at 11:52 am

By Dan Whelan

About time

The council haven’t mentioned the fact that people live in the precinct southway flats, they will have to put up with the noise and mess for years.

Great news Eccles shopping centre has been dead for many years now new build can only be good for Eccles and it’s resident’s my concern I live on the second floor of southway flats that sit directly in line to your demolition plans what plans for us if any would.

Eccles needs decent shops and not flats going to stop people shopping nothing will be left will go other places

PEEL…. Are you listening? Now, please do something with Swinton precinct!
The whole block from Swinton Hall Road to Chorley Road (except Asda I suppose) needs a complete rebuild. The Lancastrian Hall, the ugliest civic building in GM IMHO, needs to be used or replaced or refitted or… something!
PEEL take huge rents from businesses, it’s about time that money was spent providing a modern place for people to spend their money!

Living here it’s utterly depressing how bad that precinct is, the centre isn’t fit for purpose and no point looking backwards on how it was, it’s how it is now which is derelict and devoid of any community. Change is desperately needed if community is ever going to come back and that means people living there, spending money and enjoying the area so something has to happen.

It’s been run to the ground for many years,I hope Eccles is not going to be full of apartments and no shops for people to use. Places for children should be high priority. Young families can’t afford to travel miles for some play indoor activities.

Please knock down the dreadful bus station too and relocate it onto Regent Road.

Been a long time coming but so much potential with trams to the Quays and media city and an 8 minute train ride into Manchester. It needs a lot of planning but with a bit of thought it could be so much more.

What about putting some resources into cadishead

Eccles first and foremost is a MARKET town when the outdoor market was there the place was buzzing.. now with multi national supermarkets ruling the roost and the Trafford Centre on its doorstep Eccles has been left to rot … no local shopkeepers ie fishmongers butchers or greengrocers .. people just come into Eccles use morrisons for all their needs and go .. so the local business’s are left to die … take note Bury and Ashton still have thriving Markets as well as big stores these Councillors want to sit down with local shoppers and shopkeepers before we turn it into another concrete jungle full of high rise apartments for the greedy capitalists

You can’t have you eccles cake and eat it… better to lose some ‘traditional’ character for new homes, commercial and considered public realm..

Eccles was always a market town and was famous for it’s pubs. Bring back the market and LEAVE THE PUBS ALONE. We’ve lost enough.

About time thank you! Lived in Eccles all my life not all of us here cling to the squalid remnants of the past. Hopefully this gives people that live here to shop in Eccles.

First of all powers that be have to recognise that Eccles is a market town not a gentrified place pretending to be something it is not. It needs independent shops that ensure quality. Consultation with locals is important as pointed out in the flyer” the road to reneration” which was published when the council bought the precinct.

About bloody time demolish the lot and start from scratch

I would like to say that I do not see the point in building more apartments when there’s no shops .
It is ridiculous

The heart of Eccles was ripped out when the outdoor market went and Morrisons arrived.

While I agree that Eccles needs regenerating has nobdy thought of those traders who have a business in the Market and what they are going to do, these traders try to make a living and bring something to Eccles which we lost when the open market was taken from us, It could have been a thriving place if SCC had got its finger out and helped and advertised it. I feel sorry for the traders who have been messed about and still unsure of the future for them. The lady who sold wool has gone to Wigan her mother Pat ran the card stall and the wools for many years on the open market then at the side of what was Wilkinson when the market was put on Southway, we have lost many good things. and it is time things were put back in place so that Eccles could be great again

Eccles needs to be a more inviting place to come to, all you see down Liverpool Rd are take aways and barber shops is horrible. The town centre needs to be a place where people want spend time with nice places to eat and shop, artizan bakeries and coffee shops, little independent boutiques this will raise the standing of the whole area.

With the building of new apartments will there be money spent on the infrastructure in the area to provide school places, nurseries and doctors and improved roads to accommodate the rise in the population ?

Eccles in Lancashire. Has been destroyed under Salford.who are more interested in Salford Quays than a regeneration of our carterd market town.

I lived in Monton in the 1970s and worked on Eccles market, you should never have got rid of it, it was a great market and it buzzed with banter and people coming together. The precinct was an eyesore back then, but it did have some fairly good shops, my dad (long gone now) loved going to Obidoo it was the early day pound shop. Whatever you do, make it great for the lovely people of Eccles. I have lived on the Fylde coast since the late 70s currently in Cleveleys, but I have fond memories of Eccles. Looking forward to seeing it after its transformation.
Make it good “PLEASE”

Don’t just do what you( the council think)
We should have a say..we are the one’s going
To shop there.. we know what shops are needed.. get the public to have a say..it’s not
Right council’s make all the decisions…

The mayor stood in out town centre and said he was going to get our town centre back to a vibrant town again that they were going to apporoach businesses to come into Eccles. At no point did he say he was bulldozing it. Shouldnt the residents have a say on what we want. Salford council just like to bulldoze everything

Need shops not flats any give spare ground they put up houses or flats in a bit there will nothing in Eccles so people will go else where

Ripped the heart out of Eccles and Salford for money people to move in ie, media city, Salford quays, and Salford Royal forget about the communities that have lived here for hundreds of years, put us back in Lancashire, when life was better and communities care.

You allowed this decline to happen disgusting for shop owners and communities and local people. You will improve the area addd new expensive shops etc sad so sad .

Can we see plans of the proposed development….no point in starting, if you havn’t drawn outlines of what and how the space is to be used!

Who ever designed the indoor market ,should not be allowed anywhere near the plans ,it was the worst designed inside market I’ve ever seen in a shopping center ,it was cold and uninviting what. Waste of money and space that was ,
In this day and age they want to look what’s working in a town center and what’s not ,employ people who know what they are doing ,and have a proven track record of regenerating town centers

Its good that Eccles is being brought into the 21st centry , just sad to think it wouldn’t last long when its done .
Just look at the Lowry.
I was there 2 days ago ,and i was sooo shocked to see how many shops had gone . Only a few shops remain. Its just about surviving because of the cinema.. so i dont hold much hope for the new Eccles . It will end up just like the Lowry shopping centre. I was born in Eccles and i loved the shops we had back then . But that was then this is now . It will end up with Charity shops, Turkish barbar shops and foreign convenience shops, and take a ways . Because that is how eccles is all along Liverpool Rd right up to eccles Aldi . 😥

There will be no social housing for us though.

It’s disgusting Eccles has been in my life for 63 years and it’s been killed off I feel like my heart has been ripped out 😭

20yrs to late , but better late the never

Instead of some planners from swinton who live in Knutsford,why don’t they ask eccles people what they would like their, stuff that will benefit them etc,instead of bringing in Starbucks,and dearco coffee shops.Try a local coffee bar run by local people,serving homemade Victoria sponge cake.

About time it’s a dump

Next we need all of Swinton and Walkden shopping centres bulldozing, they are an embarrassment compared to what they used to be.

Please look again at building low level accomodation in all parts of Salford. Please don’t make ghettos.

IAM hoping to have a proper shopping centre not just housing

Eccles died years ago when they took away the outdoor market, it was a market town, this was the heart of the town. The town died but nobody told it, just like Salford market, Swinton market, even Bolton. Compare the same towns now to when they had a proper market not a junk table top sale but well established traders then the town will be fit for purpose as it says in the article, bring back the heart and honest trading without stupid high rents and rates that don’t help the community but only put money in developers pockets. BRING BACK the HEART of ECCLES

Sorry anonymous, but Ashton market is no longer thriving, it’s more like a derelict space.
The outside market has about 4 stalls and indoor has nearly half the stalls empty.
Bury market is about the best in Greater Manchester.

It’s more likely going to be a big mosque

Partnership developer?? Another disaster in the offing.

Wish it was happening at Swinton Precinct

Thats really great News its nothing in shoping center for this moment

Will we have anywhere left to shop

Eccles has definitely suffered over the years, pubs closing, supermarkets closing, small retailers going out of business.. what is needed are small to medium size shop units that are very much affordable to the small businesses if the regeneration is to succeed. There is absolutely no point building it if they can’t fill the units. I used to Love the Old Eccles but, over the past 10-20 years it has taken a huge hit with affordability. Eccles needs quality shops, stores returning not go to the point of £pound shops. Best Wishes to a brighter future for Eccles. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️👏👏👍👍