Improving our gateways

"It would be remiss of me not to mention the fabulous weather we have had this summer, give or take a few thunder storms. Luckily, they seemed to miss the Chesterfield Festival of Cricket at Queen's Park. The good weather and the cricket pulled many visitors to our town and, it seemed, the train was a popular choice of transport.

Each day of the week-long festival we witnessed a steady stream of cricket fans make their way from the station, up Corporation Street and through the heart of the Town to Queens Park. And soon the station will offer an equally appealing welcome as the town centre, as it is earmarked in the Borough Council's £500,000 Gateway Enhancement Scheme .

The improvements will happen at the Hornsbridge roundabout, which you can currently have a say on your prefered scheme and the Railway Station Link – which includes Crow Lane from the railway station past the Chesterfield Hotel and across the public footbridge, which links to Corporation Street and the town centre.

The train station is vital to our local economy. The excellent direct rail links Chesterfield has with major towns and cities is just one of the many reasons why companies and people choose to locate here. Testament to this is the fact that property developers and estate agents in the town are reporting a boom in sales. Miller Homes East Midlands has described Chesterfield as being "at the top of the wish list for many couples, families and individuals looking to buy."
It's an excellent good news story for the town. Things are very much starting to look up for both the local and national economy. We have never stopped investing in our town - the £4 million redevelopment of the market hall being a prime example - and this shows by the fact people want to come here to live, work and visit. So many towns have fallen victim to the recession and report ghost town high streets. Not us. We are booming.

To quote my colleague, Councillor John Burrows, Vice Chair of Destination Chesterfield: "We could have chosen to bunker down and ride out the recession, but we didn't. We chose to be proactive and forge ahead with our marketing plans and this shows in the recent employment, tourism and retail figures."