Theatre induces dramatic tension in me

I know it’s a bit of a tired old subject for those living in Shrewsbury, writes blogger Emma Suddaby, but the new theatre, currently taking shape in Frankwell, just blows my mind.

I’m not commenting on whether we want it, or whether we need it, as a concept. I just think it’s a remarkably ugly building taking the place of what was a remarkably beautiful and much-loved Shrewsbury scene.

What I don’t understand is this . . . when Joe Bloggs tries to get planning permission to put up a new garage on the land beside his house, he is very often told that it would be unsympathetic to the surroundings. Similarly, when a house is listed, the rules and requirements for carrying out any work on the property are endless. And in many residential areas, even satellite dishes are outlawed for fear of blotting the otherwise harmonious landscape.

So what happened to the mighty rubber-stamp of the planning authorities when the plans for Shrewsbury’s new theatre were being drawn up? Where were their stringent and exacting requirements for ensuring that the new blends seamlessly with the old, then? Were they at lunch while this monstrous creation was being smuggled into the ‘approved’ pile?

Although no historically valuable buildings were removed to make way for it, the Welsh Bridge and its general surroundings, was a famous and memorable Shropshire scene. And what do we have now? We have the beautiful River Severn, snaking its way through the calm, pastoral landscape, flowing under the ancient and famous bridge with lovely, crookity Frankwell on the other side, looking like something out of a Dickens novel.

And then, right slap bang in the middle of all that loveliness, we have what looks, at the moment, like a massive, grey, scaffolded jukebox rearing up from the riverside - unavoidable.

It assaults my senses every time I cross Welsh Bridge - a huge, incongruous edifice where once there was harmony between nature and industry, ancient and modern. I’m confused.

I’m not going to hazard any guesses as to how this building was approved, but I want to register my disbelief that it was.

Of course, I may be jumping the gun. Perhaps building work is about to take this concrete, ugly duckling through its final phase of metamorphosis, and we will shortly witness it emerging from its chrysalis of scaffolding as a beautiful, elegant, sympathetic piece of architecture.

But if not, and it ends up looking like someone saw a hotel in Las Vegas they liked so much that they recreated it in Shrewsbury, I shall be cross.

And if, at some point in the future, I decide to apply for planning permission to build an extension onto my home, and despite the plans being carefully drawn up to comply with all the relevant aesthetic requirements, they are turned down, I shall start to wonder if there are double-standards at work.

• Inspirational Emma Suddaby shares her ” highs, lows - and various murky places inbetween” - with her weekly blog. Emma, a finalist in the 2007 Shropshire Star Woman of the Year competition, was diagnosed with aggressive, destructive rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 22. She has since won a dream flying scholarship with the charity Flying Scholarships for the Disabled and is now training for a National Private Pilot’s Licence.