Shrewsbury Prison closure a blow to economy
It is far from a happy time in Shrewsbury. The economy, that most fragile of creatures, has taken another turn for the worse and is back in hospital. Its condition is said to be serious writes Dave Burrows.
The high street has been dealt two bitter blows. Camera retailer Jessops, which had two stores in Shrewsbury, closed last week, and this week there was the news that administrators had been appointed to music giant HMV, with its Pride Hill store now under threat.
Elsewhere 200 jobs are at risk with the closure of Shrewsbury's Dana prison. Union bosses say they hope compulsory redundancies can be avoided, but that means one of two things - people volunteering to lose their jobs or moving away from the area to take up work elsewhere. Either one means less money coming into the local economy.
The announcement of the prison closure is a particular blow to the Castlefields area still reeling from the news that the Royal Mail sorting office is to close in 2014 with 160 jobs under threat there. Yet more money taken out of the pot.
But there is some light at the end of the increasingly dark tunnel.
The Buttermarket nightclub, right next to the prison, is making something of a name for itself since it was taken over, and transformed, by businessman Martin Monahan.
Now it may not be my cup of tea, but you can't argue with a venue that manages to attract every one of the top X Factor acts within weeks of the show finishing - most for their first ever shows. You certainly can't argue with the likes of James Arthur loving it so much that he decided to come back.
The audiences are young. And the one thing you are when you are young is stupid, especially when it comes to money. This is not an insult. If you are not stupid when you are young, then you're doing it wrong.
So that's money back IN the pot.
And now another twinkling light on the horizon. The prison could be transformed into a hotel.
It has long been said that Shrewsbury lacks hotels, although the Lion and Pheasant and Silverton hotels and the impending opening of the Premier Inn at the former Telephone House site have gone some way to addressing that (the Premier Inn will also create 55 jobs and isn't that far from Castlefields).
If the prison could become a hotel and replicate the success of Malmaison in Oxford - the first English prison to be turned into a hotel - it would be a feather in the cap of Shrewsbury and go a long way to reducing the impact of two massive blows to that end of town.
It is in everyone's interests to make this happen.
It could be our get out of jail free card.
