Shropshire Star

'Fantastic': Delight at £1.1 million flagship scheme to improve Oswestry

A scheme which will repair shop fronts, bring vacant Oswestry buildings back into use and inject substantial investment into the town centre has been hailed as "fantastic".

Published
Oswestry town centre

Historic England grants and matched funding means that there is £1.1m available to spend as part of the town's Heritage Action Zone project.

The proposed schemes would comprise the repair and re-use of potentially two vacant and disused buildings within the town centre, potentially for supported business pop-up uses, which will help independent small local businesses.

Sympathetic repairs to shop fronts are also part of the funding project, with an average grant of £12,000.

Town clerk Arren Roberts told a meeting of Oswestry Town Council's finance and general purposes committee that a number of applications have already been made.

Meanwhile, the Public Realm budget will see potential investment of £250,000 into the town centre, with the initial focus Oswestry's alleyways.

Consultants

This would include removing waste bins from the alleys and improving lighting.

Mr Roberts told the meeting that consultants have been appointed to have a look at some of the alleyways to come up with design ideas.

He added that the public will be able to have their say on the plans.

Councillor Duncan Kerr, chairman of the finance and general purposes committee, said: "There's nothing like a boarded up shop to give people the impression that the town is not going places.

"I know Oswestry is probably better off than many towns, but it doesn't help if you live in Oswestry because it's your town that has got empty shops and it's your town that you want tackled.

"This is a fantastic scheme that will make a real difference to the shop fronts you can tackle.

"I think the public realm is long overdue. There's places we know, we've talked about in Oswestry.

"People are frightened to walk down them in the state they are in. That doesn't bode well for our town centre.

"The flagship scheme gives us an opportunity of really dealing with an iconic building and getting that back into productive use.

"Iit wouldn't happen if it wasn't for the town council. If you look where the funding is coming from, yes some is coming from Historic England but the rest is coming from the town council, which is making that happen."

The report was noted by the committee.