Letter: Shrewsbury must be careful with development
Saturday 13th August 2011, 8:34AM BST.
Letter: Shrewsbury, like many other market towns, has had a tough couple of years but does appear to be coming through difficult financial times in reasonably good shape.
There are large companies keen to invest in the town but I do think we need to beware of allowing too many new retail units while we have so many empty shops, particularly in the Riverside Shopping Centre.
Promises of providing new jobs should be treated with caution as we all know that new shops merely take jobs from existing businesses rather than provide completely new work.
Any companies applying for planning permission on the outskirts of town should be told that we only accept food shopping on out-of- town sites as we are keen to protect our town centre.
The proposal from Tesco is a classic example of a company trying to expand its non-food offer and attempting to undermine the viability of the centre of the town.
The next few weeks are a really good time to visit Shrewsbury town centre as the flowers and hanging baskets are at their best and the town is really colourful.
Try to make time to visit The Quarry and Dingle which are now at their very best, and our cafes and bars now offer opportunities to sit outside and enjoy the vitality of the town.
Shrewsbury is in good health and everyone is welcome to enjoy our marvellous town.
Councillor Peter Nutting
Shrewsbury
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The idea of the redelvopment of the tired old riverside is to attract new retailers to the town with the size of units that are needed ( the units in riverside at present will never do this ) this will then increase shoppers which would not go to Shrewsbury and would go out of town to places like Telford , Chester , Birmingham etc so the idea of it not bring more employment is mad , The scale of the new centre is fantastic and with this in mind will put Shrewsbury back on the map for shopping . I also disagree with the idea of putting out of town shopping as food ?? this is mad i would much prefer to see more food stores in the centre of town with of course the specialised stores on the high street .
I do wonder sometimes if some councilors understand the idea of progress and improving Shrewsbury ?
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Partial common sense from Peter. All I would ask is that you are sensible when it comes to overdevelopment or our quality of life will suffer. Also the swallowing up of greenfield sites to throw em up and collect the cash housing developers must end.
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I partially agree with the comment of leaving some greenfield sites alone, but Shrewsbury does need a retail strategy rethink. Its a lovely town but as a shopping experience its quite poor, the unused Darwin Centre being particularly barren and cold and the atmosphere on a Saturday during the day and early evening can be very poor, with few people about. Is it costs of Parking? Parking locations, or the insane road layout? but its not quite a destination town like Chester. The Theatre has been a bit of a disaster in all honesty and apart from a few bars and restaurants, the dinning scene is just average at best. They need to encourage new business into the town and while the quarry and dingle are indeed very pleansant I dont think the riverside feature is used to at all well. Events in the quarry add a lot of revenue to the town yet local snoots seem to be too interested in noise levels than the economy around them and if the sound is not right artists wont come back. It has the potential to be a great great town yet I feel soemtimes it takes itself too seriously.
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OMG I Agree with peter nutting!! help!!
but yes too much mall = bad, despite the wet uk weather its better to shop outside with market stalls in the square and small little independant shops aroudn the alleys and chuts of town, much better to have a Unique Selling Point for our town not try to Ape others
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Agree
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Yes, Shrewsbury is a great place. Btw I’m an incomer Riverside has empty shops because it’s not a good place to go.
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i am in disagreement with the whole merging of centres and the redevelopment. i am a young person and have been in shrewsbury all my life, over many years i have seen shops come and go and building some new modern building isn’t goin to change that. shrewsbury is an old town with its black and white buildings, building something with a glass roof and having grass on roofs isn’t shrewsbury. the parking prices for the town are stupidly high thats why people don’t come here. some one said we need food shops in the town, there is no way i would be able to do my food shopping in town on a saturday with two young children, its hard enuf going somewhere like tesco and thats just one shop in one place, never mind having half a dozen shops around you, and then you have the problem. most of the major retailers look to have shops on retail parks, i.e next, argos because the renting of units is cheaper and the parking for customers is free. there are far to many shops empty in the town with many more going in admistration. it admazes me that they say they have retailers already in mind for taking up the space of the new building but the new building doesnt open for another 3/4yrs, a lot can happen in that time. i think they should try focus on what the towns already got and not what it needs. many of the bigger shops like t j hughes have closed, now thats a big shop for somewhere like primark or debenhams to take over. all reverside needs is a lick of paint, need flooring in places. the money they are using to build this new centre could go towards things that should take priority like housing and keeping schools open.
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. “all reverside needs is a lick of paint, need flooring in places. the money they are using to build this new centre could go towards things that should take priority like housing and keeping schools open.”
I have got to reply to this The Riverside needs alot more than a new floor and lick of paint it needs total knock down this 70s shopping centre has lived it life aand needs preplacing , And as for the money for housing and keeping schools open , The money which is being used for the development is from the company that now owns the centres and has nothing to do with the council (which pays for schools and housing )
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Me and my husband used to regularly go to Shrewsbury Town Centre on a Saturday or Sunday just to wander around the shops, have some lunch or meet friends for a drink but since they have put up the parking charges we no longer do this. In fact I do not remember the last time I went into the Town Centre during the day and I know a lot of our friends feel the same.
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isnt this the very same person who whilst council leader put that lump of concrete by the river and approved the architecture on the new theatre – hardly renowned for protecting the towns environment!?
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Indeed, and lets be honest, that’s not the only visually unappealing structure built in Shrewsbury in the last 10 years.
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I personally think Shrewsbury needs to slow down on development, sadly the recession could be a good thing, because it recent years its getting far too modernised, i support the mall development, but generally i think Shrewsbury is getting overdeveloped and especially out of town and greenfield sites needs to be really checked
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On the subject of the theatre someone told me there’s a load of scaffolding around it. Any ideas what’s going on?
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As a Shropshire lad who regularly visits Bath, York and Chester I consider Shrewsbury up there with all 3.
Bath has recently been developed to bring top retailers into the city.
The new development (Riverside) looks fantastic. £150 Million not a penny less! Lets not forget that the older generation who may consider this development to be too modern will not be around to appreciate progress.
Bring on the future and long live Shrewsbury!
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I agree with “let them eat cake” long live Shrewsbury , And with its new shopping centre offering this will bring it more trade and visitors to see our fantastic town
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You hope, I don’t see how a new shopping centre, filled to the brim (hopefully) with the same shops that are already present in Telford, Wolverhampton etc will bring in more trade.
Shrewsbury’s big draw is it’s unique alleys and small traders. If you want more trade, invest in stores that people want to shop in. A big fancy shopping centre is just the icing on the cake.
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[because it recent years its getting far too modernised]
What do you actually mean by this comment, Giles?
We have a pseudo mediaeval shopping centre and most developments are designed to look oldish so what’s your complaint?
We could ban all cars and only allow drovers carts but it would not be very practical or welcome.
So long as we develop in fake Victorian, Georgian or Timber Framed with an emphathis on garish flower displays in the best possible taste how can Shrewsbury fail to appeal?
It’s generally older people who like sitting in staged flower gardens so we already are very successful at driving away and keeping the young adults out of the area who by and large haven’t got much money, work, prospects, stake or interest in the town.
Let Shrewsbury stay the same,it’s always been it’s mantra and the government one day can declare it first town to become giant care home in the country.
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Now Now Eva You may be the first in the
GIANT CARE HOME.
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well they could start by securing the golf course, which shropshire council leaders (who arent even from shrewsbury) are constantly seeking to cash in on and concrete over!
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Can anyone afford to shop in the Town Centre anymore?
With the current rate of inflation and pay cuts it will have to be the cheaper out of town “sheds” for me.
Shame because they are all major chains with profits going to HQ outside of the County
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I would suggest people look to exeter as a good example of a new build mall being built nicely not to detract from the medieval town, however whilst it looks the part it has created a ghost town of the former busy high st im sad to say
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I looked at the exeter shopping mall and it appears to be extremely contemporary which I agree respects the orginal architecture of older towns. What we lost and replaced in the 1980s in Shrewsbury was an original terracing of genuine older buildings with a fake disney like pretend mediaeval blank facade.
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Shrewsbury needs a modern retail centre. Shopping is a ‘leisure activity’ nowadays, one we all can enjoy as long as we’ve got manageable debt anyway. As long as it’s filled with covet-able goods that celebrities advertise and somehow validate our existence, it’ll be fine by me.
What’s that ? No, I’ve been away for the last few weeks, have I missed something ?
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do hope that shrewsbury modern planners have a little more thought and skills than their forbears of 50 years ago who ripped the heart out of shrewsbury and very nearly ruined it for ever. floreat salopia and floreat sensible planning
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Thomas Telford ran his road through the Abbey precincts and there was massive destruction of the original Abbey and our ancient churches and buildings by the Victorians. All long before you were here jack.
The 1930s razed much of Shrewsbury for new roads for the motor cars, rebuilding in fake Arts& Craft styles which are not particularly attractive nor lend themselves to modern life today.
The 1960s was the beginning of recognition that we needed to preserve older quality buildings but at the same time new buildings were of their time and many are interesting and adaptable 50 years on.
Then we’ve somehow lost our way,in the 1980s onwards, building what almost seem like film sets for various period romantic novels.
Guildhall to look like a warehouse,a modern shopping mall to look vaguely timber framed with castle like turrets!
Wasn’t that a more recent hideous mistake?
So really jack, you can’t stop change, some will be good and some not but you can’t blame one decade for the loss of the heart of Shrewsbury. The motor car is probably the most destructive commodity that affects all our towns, villages and cities. Telford was way ahead of his time wasn’t he!
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