As regular readers of this column will know, over the years I have taken more than a passing interest in the shiny shopping and leisure centre that is Northwich’s Barons Quay.

And I think it’s fair to say I am something of a fan. I want it to succeed, attract successful businesses and drag Northwich kicking a screaming into the 21st century.

But that site does have a chequered history. It was my favourite car park when I worked in Northwich town centre. And let’s not forget how it was annually turned into a motorbike circuit for the Thundersprint event (although the less said about that the better. I never liked the Thundersprint and was glad when it finally moved out).

But as anyone who has a passing interest in Northwich knows, underneath what was the Leicester Street car park – and what is now Barons Quay – are the old salt mines.

It is only a couple of weeks ago I recalled how it took a unique piece of civil engineering to make the land fit to build on – pumping fly-ash grout into the voids left by the old salt mine brine extraction workings.

But there was a problem – isn’t there always? Because the system was new and untried, no developer would take on the construction project without financial assurances regarding the stability of the land, so the government was asked to underwrite it.

Finally, after many false dawns, Barons Quay as we know and love it today was built. Happy days.

So it was with a sense of foreboding and doom I read that cracks had started to appear in the walls around the escalators between the car park and the entrance to the Asda supermarket.

Northwich Guardian:

Is this our worst-case scenario, I wondered? Have our fears been realised and is Barons Quay about to slide into a sinkhole filled with salty water and fly ash never to be seen again, Well apparently not, according to landlords Cheshire West and Chester Council with a spokesperson saying the cracks have not been caused by subsidence and are not a cause for concern.

According to the Northwich Guardian, the spokesperson says there’s nothing to worry about, adding: “The council is aware of the cracks in the plasterboard near the escalators next to Asda at Barons Quay. The cracks are cosmetic and nothing more serious.

“We acknowledge that the cracks detract from the appearance of the area for customers visiting Barons Quay and have referred this to our contractors to provide a suitable repair.”

Well, we can all breathe a little more easily now. You have it on good authority Barons Quay is not going to come tumbling down around your ears.

But I bet the ‘concerned members of the public’ who spotted the cracks and reported then to CWAC had a few little palpitations at the time. You can relax now because we all trust a council spokesperson, don’t we?