Top of shopping centre to be 'sliced off' as next stage of Shrewsbury redevelopment is unveiled
Plans for a cinema, offices, and flats forming the next phases of a multi-million pound redevelopment of Shrewsbury's Riverside area are revealed to the public today.
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Even before the first phase for the demolition of the Riverside Shopping Centre has been officially approved, Shropshire Council and its partners are unveiling what is coming next in the plans and how they see them being implemented.
Possibly the most eye-catching part of new wholesale redevelopment proposals are to slice off the top of the Pride Hill Shopping Centre, opening up a route from Pride Hill into a new planned Roushill Park and beyond to Frankwell. Architects see a boutique cinema and retail businesses filling new glass fronted buildings.
Today the starting gun is fired on a public consultation exercise that will run until March on two new planning applications being lodged.
An original plan for the demolition of the Riverside is set to be determined next month.
The Riverside Shopping Centre could be demolished by the late summer or early autumn, with work on Roushill Park, with a new avenue of trees and play areas, started in November and finished by the early summer of 2025.
Also in outline plans are for three building plots located between Smithfield Road, Raven Meadows and the proposed Roushill Park, earmarked for hotel, office and residential space.
A top councillor gave his answers to key questions including who is going to pay for it, and will the council listen to feedback from a consultation that starts now and runs until March.
Councillor Ian Nellins is the lead councillor for the proposals and says that most of the money is expected to come from capital budgets, which is a different pot of money that the revenue budget where the council faces having to save millions.
