Phil Gillam: Celebrating the beating heart of Shrewsbury

These are the topics for this week – although, chronologically speaking, these are (as Eric Morecambe might have put it) the right topics, but not necessarily in the right order!

Okay. Let’s begin with the Repair Cafe.

“It’s an idea that seems to have begun in Holland,” said Sue Holt, one of a small team of magic fairies who’ll have a go at fixing anything.

They’d set themselves up over the weekend in the Stop Cafe at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, a merry band with a bunch of different skills, eager to give stuff a new lease of life.

“So far today, we’ve fixed a toaster, a radio, a drill, a Scalextric set, a Transformer toy …” explained Sue. “And we’ve patched the seat of someone’s trousers.”

As we chatted, team member Clive Parsons was attempting to fix a large wall clock.

It all seemed very charming and very Shrewsbury-ish …

CHARLES DARWIN: Talking of all things Shrewsbury-ish, in a recent column I touched upon moves to make a lot more of our town’s links to the great Charles Darwin.

And I am grateful to Mr Byron Grainger-Jones, chairman of Shrewsbury Civic Society, who wrote in endorsing what I’d said.

“If indeed Charles Darwin is to receive greater recognition in his home town of Shrewsbury, then surely his birthplace at The Mount must figure in the long run,” he wrote.

Indeed. And some very exciting discussions are taking place.

Watch this space!

TOWN CENTRE: What does the future hold for our town centre? This was a subject debated the other evening by myself and a couple of pals during our “putting the world to rights” session.

It seems an especially pertinent issue for Shrewsbury at the moment with the recent completion of the sale of Shrewsbury’s three shopping centres. Shropshire Council has finalised the purchase of the Charles Darwin and Pride Hill shopping centres and the leasehold of the Riverside Shopping Centre.

Shropshire Council says the £51 million purchase is a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ which will bring much-needed cash into its coffers.

Now, plenty of folks believe this to be a good move, others aren’t quite so sure.

But it did get us thinking about the future of the high street … not just Shrewsbury’s high street, but high streets up and down the country.

Some of us have still not quite come to terms with the disappearance of dear old Woolworths. Then British Home Stores (BHS) bit the dust in 2016.

We now hear that House of Fraser is struggling.

And you can’t help but wonder about the long-term future of other giants – even the mighty Marks & Spencer.

If the trend for shopping online (and at out-of-town retail parks) continues to grow, what will our town centres look like in 20 years time?

Frankly, my pals and I didn’t come up with any real answers, but let us hope that the beating heart of Shrewsbury - and of course other towns - can find ways not only to survive but to thrive.

It would be a sad old world without them!

HOSPITAL - PARK AND RIDE: This surely makes a lot of sense. A new park and ride based off the A5 could serve the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

It would form part of the strategy to tackle congestion in and around this beautiful old town.

No specific site has been revealed for the possible new service, but it would operate in tandem with the existing sites currently operated by Arriva.

Shropshire Councillor Steve Davenport, portfolio holder for Highways and Transport, said our county town should model itself on towns like Chester which operates a successful system that takes traffic out of the town centre.

Quite right.

It sounds like those good people at the Repair Cafe aren’t the only ones trying to fix things!