LETTER: River buildings must be kept
Monday 17th August 2009, 6:59AM BST.
Letter: It is with interest that I read the former councillor for the Frankwell Ward wants to establish a Compulsory Purchase Order for the two old buildings left in Frankwell Quay.
It is of the utmost importance that these two buildings are retained as an image of what Frankwell Quay was in its heyday, a thriving port on the Severn.
Residents were able to defeat the last attempt at getting rid of these buildings, if only the former councillor had taken the time to listen.
The truth is that the former SABC officials want to hide that they got it wrong, they desperately need to pull down the buildings so that the new theatre can accommodate the large articulated lorries arriving to discharge scenery.
At this time the lorries are unable to do so in comfort and without inconveniencing other users of the area.
If these buildings go we may as well change the name of the quay, perhaps to Frankwell Plaza or Frankwell Boulevard. Let’s go the whole hog and totally destroy what historic buildings and areas we have in the town.
D A Cooper
Shrewsbury
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these buildings are wonderful to look at
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The buildings need to be kept .However they need to be usable and used. The whole river and frontage in frankwell and down through the quarry is so under used, some ideas from stratford-upon-avon would be great it is all such a wasted and under used area .
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Let us not dwell on these rundown buildings I say pull them down and move on and upwards….
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How about turning them into riverside bars and restaurants with outside terracing? I’m sure a lot of theatre goers will use them
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I suppose if they are pulled down then a new temple dedicated to the excesses of the old administration can be forced skyward.Perhaps even a display area to show off that £3000 saucer that we paid for.
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Surely the wharf there was designed to load and offload goods, why can’t the scenery be placed on a barge at the West Mids Showground and transported by the river?
Taking up on Baz’s comment perhaps the display area could be dedicated to the former Cllr Williams, it was her who came up with the bright idea of spending your dosh on the silverware wasn’t it? I’m fortunate not to have had to hand my cash over otherwise I’d probably have a little more to say on the matter.
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I live in the Frankwell area and hardly ever venture into the car park itself, but after paying a visit to the recycling bank at the base of the footbridge I had to drive back out past these buildings.
I found myself wondering what happened to the businesses that used to operate from there – Bill’s Kitchen, the antiques centre – where are they now?
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The council have done their best to wreck as much cultural significance as they can,so why stop here? Knock them down!!!
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they are wonderful old buildings
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“The truth is that the former SABC officials want to hide that they got it wrong, they desperately need to pull down the buildings so that the new theatre can accommodate the large articulated lorries arriving to discharge scenery.”
What a load of rubbish and certainly not the truth. Part of the planning process if you read it for the new theatre was that artics had to be able to get onto the loading dock and they can.
It was also the old council that turned down the varrious planning requests from the owners of these buildings to knock them down so you can not blame the council for this one. Lets see the new council CPO the buildings and get pepole into them who can make them work even if one of the biggest obstacles to this is the ev=nvironment agency who have stupid restrictions of use because the area might flood if the flood wall fails, why build the thing ???. Unfortunatily the chap who owns the malttings wants over twice the market value for the site hence it is left to rot.
DA Cooper should think back to when this part of the town was a load of tin shakes and looked like a scrap yard. Which is better the old or the new or are the rose tinted galsses on yet again.???
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every town you go to with a quay side has lovely old antiques markets and cafe/bars by the quay – we must do this in shrewsbury, breathe new life into the buildings, shame on the council for not spending some of that £28 million theatre on saving these neighbouring buildings
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get the MP to start a campaign in parliament
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knowing shropshire county council they would get a private company to repair them and then guarentee to rent them back off them as offices for the next 50 years!!! call it PFI perhaps?
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i agree with Jaggs – i agree the council ought to use CPO here
Shrewsbury should be more of a priority for the new council, we all use shrewsbury for work and shopping regardless of where we live in the county
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i love the timber doors and maritime style for what was a docks after all on the old warehouse buildings, the attempts to recreate this on the theatre and those horrid new ‘darwin’ flats by the car park however are laughable, they look modern and ugly
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It was the building of the Guildhall or should I say pretend ‘Quayside Warehouse’ that spelt disaster for these buildings. The underpinning which had to go very deep shook the old bulding to the core and now they are substantiably, structurally unstable.
Wappy Phillips was as interesting a site but the mediaeval timbers there were not acknowledged and the buildings removed very quickly before anyone had time to properly examine them.
As has been said previously the area is now so blighted with poorly designed buildings around these wrecks it really doesn’t make a lot of difference. The specialness of Frankwell Quay has been well and truly lost.
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#no 14 – Wendy P, please be advised that Shrewsbury is not the centre of the – we do not all work and shop in Shrewsbury, out of the whole Country as a % very few people would actually work and shop in Shrewsbury
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Wendy P is making an assumption that everybody either lives or shops in Shrewsbury – WRONG! Why should everyone pay for the dalliances of the council?
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i will never countenance the destuction of any old buildings, if they may have a useful future they should be kept. it is up to the residents to come up with some ideas if the council is too thick to think for themselves,
a riverside bar with moorings sounds ideal, as well as an antiques centre, even a microbrewery, although flooding may be a problem from time to time
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With such a large council, tihs kind of thing will happen. With large councils they do not notice a warehouse in Shrewsbury, a cottage in Prees, a house in Bridgnorth. Not until it is too late.
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they could have the beer festival there, or frankwell and district history society and heritage centre. given a bit of thought the possibilities for these soon to be restored buildings are endless!
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Knock em down, theres no history left in shrewsbury. Its a newer town than Telford
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Its not the size of the council that matters afterall it was the smaller Shrewsbury and Atcham that almost caved and let greedy developers tear them down and replace them with generic rubbish instead of converting and maintaining these historic buildings.
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they are ugly no need for them anymore the river is little used so why do we need docks if you cannot access them by boat pull them down build some more modern rubbish like the new theatre and council offices..
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this would be a loverly resteraunt/bar complex to compliment the theatre
im from Wem – live and work there – but i come to Shrewsbury at least once a month and everyone i know in north shropshire does too – im afraid for salopians it is the centre of the universe and so should be a priority for everone in shropshire!!!!!
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maybe to sae them from the council and developers mercy, the locals should hav a whip round – own them as a community building, kind of a village hall for frankwell and town centre residents, used for the people by the people owned by the people, why not?
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i agree with the letter there is so much new buildings in shrewsbury, every little peice of historic building is so precious
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these would make lovely executive flats – surely that way you maximise the value and thus incinetivise investors to spend the millions needed to restore these, the reason they have not been restored is because they are allocated for commercial space – let them be houses!
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Its unlikely that they could bve used for flats, being behind flood defences and so close to the river they must be in the high risk flood plain and flats are discouraged in places like that.
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they must be more than justy “kept” they must be restored and saved for years more, they will be ruined if they are left empty ,ACTION is needed now to redevelop them and to make that profitable (and socially useful) FLATS are the answer, the environment agency must be over ruled, these will not flood with that wall there and if they do so will the Council offices and theatre, they could use the ground floor for car parking put the flats on high and job done, problem solved, build them, build flats now, no one will profit from a community buildling and there is no commercial gain otherwise to motivate the needed investment
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you would think these would be nationally important, cant we get some central funding from the national trust or government or something?
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