'Disaster' Riverside Shopping Centre raises fears
Concerns have been raised at the run-down state of the Riverside Shopping Centre – with councillors calling for signs to be put up to let shoppers know it is still open for business.
The shopping centre in Raven Meadows is due to be demolished as part of £150 million plans to create a giant shopping mall in Shrewsbury.
In the last 12 months, many businesses have already moved out of the shopping centre, including the Co-operative supermarket and Turner's furniture store.
The increasingly empty shopping centre has been branded a 'disaster area' by Shrewsbury Town Councillor Alan Townsend.
Mr Townsend has called for signs to be put up to inform shoppers that the area is due for redevelopment.
He called on bosses behind the multi-million New Riverside shopping complex to pay for the work.
He said: "At the minute the shopping centre is a great hole in the middle of the town.
"I think a signal is needed to say we are definitely in business and that this is going to be sorted."
Mr Townsend made the comments during a meeting of the Severn Loop Local Joint Committee in Frankwell's Guildhall.
At the meeting Shropshire Council's central commissioner Jake Berriman promised to raise the matter with developers UK Commercial Property Trust Ltd.
Simon Airey, who owns the Jessop's store and Music Bros shop in the town centre, said: "The empty shop units in the shopping centre are there for a reason and it is perhaps giving the false impression that Shrewsbury has a lot of empty shop units when it hasn't.
"Rather than it being a negative thing as it appears it could be made into something very positive just by putting a few visual signs and boards up across the three shopping centres letting people know about the situation."
