Shropshire Star

Group sets up camp at gates at Shrewsbury Flower Show

Protesters positioned themselves outside the entry gates to Shrewsbury Flower Show over a long-running dispute about creating better access around Shrewsbury Castle.

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The campaigners were there because they say Shrewsbury Horticultural Society, which organises the nationally-renowned Shrewsbury Flower Show, is behind the stalling of plans to create a path bypassing the steep Dana steps that link Castle Street with the route to the Castlefields area.

Shrewsbury Town Council has spent years urging Shropshire Horticultural Society to release land in its ownership in the grounds of Shrewsbury Castle to re-route an accessible path through there.

Paolo Alessandri-Gray, a Castlefields resident, stood outside the main gates to The Quarry Park, where the Flower Show was in full swing, with two other neighbours on Saturday.

She said: "We are just keeping momentum going. This is just the latest instalment of a more-than-20-year saga." She said last year a petition was raised with more than 1,200 signatures calling for the flat path to go ahead to help give people with mobility problems and pushchairs a more direct route into the town centre.

"Shrewsbury Horticultural Society said don't give the petition to us now, as plans were about to be submitted," she said, but added nothing had happened since.

Simon Badrock, secretary of Shrewsbury Horticultural Society, previously said committee members were in discussion with the Council over the planning application.

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