Why do we need a Town Council?

Time and time again the High Peak Borough Council have let Buxton down. There was the debacle over the geese running rampant, with attendant rats, in Pavilion Gardens, which the council want and need to reduce in numbers; however, months later there is no consensus or proper plan in place on how to achieve this. We move on to the boating lake, overgrown so badly with algae that the boats were unable to be used. An enterprising lad decided to try and solve the problem by cleaning the algae from the surface of the lake in person, freely giving his own time to try and make things better for the people of Buxton and our visitors. His reward for this was that High Peak Borough Council (or one of their representatives) reported the matter to the police and he was prevented from continuing.

High Peak Borough Council have given planning permission for 1000s of new homes across the town, yet no plans seem to be in place to provide the infrastructure needed to support the expected new residents, such as doctors, public transport or new schools, especially regarding secondary provision, which is stretched to breaking point. They repeatedly give out licences for Houses of Multiple Occupation and then fail to hold the landlords responsible for the actions of their tenants. You only need to walk or drive down Fairfield Road or other approaches into Buxton to see the results of council and landlord neglect.

The magnificent colonnades that decorated the Cavendish Arcade are in desperate need of attention. Over half of them have been torn down, sold or scrapped – we may never know. The remainder are shockingly dirty and ill-maintained, with the council protesting that it is ‘too difficult’ to get people to clean, paint and repair them. Many of the colonnades that used to adorn Spring Gardens have sadly been removed as well – an important part of our spa town heritage simply erased.

In 2021 an award of £1,000,000 was made to the town to improve the shopping areas. This money was split between consultants, Robinson’s brewery for improvements to the Grove Hotel (which still stands empty with no plans for it to reopen) and the developer of the White Lion, again not reopening but with planning permission put in place for conversion to apartments. Why are the HPBC using money awarded to improve our town using the money to fund private companies and developers?

With a further grant of £10,000,000 the HPBC then purchased The Springs Shopping Centre in Buxton without any consultation with the residents on how WE would like to see the money spent.

These are just a few of the matters our council have let Buxton down over. So what can we do about it?

Buxton Alliance have come together to see what we as local people could achieve for the town. We are a cross party group from all aspects of the political spectrum. We are all agreed that the tit-for-tat politics of Westminster has no useful role locally and should be left firmly in Westminster. The role of Town Councillor is an unpaid post and a number of us are happy to stand and give our time collectively as councillors for the benefit of our community.

Please note that the emblem we have chosen for the page is that of Solomon’s Temple, a well-known landmark in the town. It was built in the late 19th century to give hope to the unemployed at the time in Buxton. As the Buxton Alliance we once again want to give our town more hope for the future, and we believe that a Buxton Town Council would be the first step to achieving this.

A Buxton Town Council could hold HPBC to account for matters pertaining to Buxton. The council could apply for funding for projects in the town from different sources such as The National Lottery, The Sports Council and various other government bodies. This could provide safe spaces for many after-school clubs, the elderly, the disabled and other groups too numerous to mention. You might ask why HPBC doesn’t apply for this funding? Any funding HPBC tends to apply for usually benefits the High Peak as a whole, and Buxton is but a small cog in that network, therefore many opportunities are missed for additional funding.

We would welcome further ideas from local people that would improve OUR town and we would urge you to use the Contact Us page to do so.