Star comment: Telford is on its way to greatness

If you have been there recently, you will have seen the difference that the changes have made. First opened in 1973, it has been developed piecemeal over the years and was once memorably described by top local planner John Buckler, who died earlier this month, as "a confection of shoeboxes."

The developments that have been completed and are on the table will give it coherence and a joined-up feeling which will make it less like an out-of-town shopping centre and more like the diverse and vibrant town centre that it aspires to be.

The Southwater development, with all its restaurants and the new cinema, has at last provided a night-time economy and given Telford people reasons to go there in the evening.

And now we have plans moving forward to deal with the future of the site of the old Asda store, left empty after the supermarket moved out.

This vacant supermarket building, which is at the spiritual heart of the centre as this is where that pioneering 1973 Carrefour "hypermarket" stood, is what greets visitors coming from the railway station. It can hardly leave a good impression. The proposals will see the old Asda site built on with a circular building with shops and restaurants. This is being dubbed the Northern Quarter. As the name implies, there is also a Southern Quarter, which is where the big green Focus building stood. The news is that work on this site will begin later this summer.

Telford town centre has always had its critics but has also been a major magnet, pulling people from far and wide to its wide range of shops, which are accessed by extensive and generally easy to find parking.

However to make it a place people want to visit it has to move forward and, to use a contemporary phrase, increase its "offer". Put another way, standing still would be to move backwards.

What is happening there now is a spectacular investment, a vote of confidence in the future, and an act of faith and support for the town centre.

When all is complete, which is going to be a few years down the line, it will be bigger, better, and have the appearance of a place more harmoniously planned.

It will be what Telford has been waiting for.