Shrewsbury Travelodge: What happened to controversial £7.8m plans for new town-centre hotel
Controversial plans for a new four-storey Travelodge on a site in central Shrewsbury have been shelved - but the hotel company has confirmed it is considering another site in the town.
Plans for a new Travelodge in Shrewsbury were approved back in 2023.
The application was to build the hotel on the site of the Barker Street Car Park.
Put forward by Shrewsbury firm Morris & Co, the plan was approved by the council's planning committee all the way back in November 2023.
That decision followed a protracted planning process, and required the submission of a second proposal to eventually gain consent.
The approval gave Morris & Co the permission to build a four-storey, 83-bedroom hotel built at the site – along with three ground-floor retail units.
The plans had attracted criticism from a number of quarters, with Shrewsbury Town Council, Shrewsbury Civic Society, and Shrewsbury Big Town Plan all asking for them to be rejected.
Heritage guardians Historic England also waded in on the scheme, describing the design as "monolithic" – although it stopped short of issuing a formal objection.
Some of the issues that caused concern were the size of the building and its proximity to the Grade II*-listed Rowley's House and Mansion.
The scheme would have represented a £7.8 million investment in the town, with the upper floors of the building leased to Travelodge for 25 years.
But it has now emerged that the plan has been abandoned, with Morris & Co explaining that the time taken to secure planning permission had had a major impact on the project.
A statement from the firm said: “Unfortunately, due to the time taken in achieving planning, the project became financially unviable given inflationary pressures.”
Travelodge has subsequently confirmed that it is looking at another site in the town.
Tony O'Brien, UK development director for the firm, said: "Having obtained approval from Shropshire Council for a new Travelodge in 2023, the developer elected not to proceed with the scheme.
"However, Travelodge has identified another potential site in the town and we are hopeful of news on this in the near future."
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