Oswestry council begins to use £4 million windfall from stalled project

Oswestry Town Council also wants to open new public toilets with a £450,000 fund it has set aside from the £4 million gained from a deal that will see a supermarket built on the edge of the town.

The council wants to open visitor facility on its Central car park, which it said would benefit those who use its shops, cafes and other businesses.

The council received a total of £4 million in capital receipts from the redevelopment of the old Smithfield Cattle Market on the Shrewsbury Road to the south of the town centre.

A new, state-of-the-art Smithfield was built on a smaller part of the site freeing up the rest.

Developers won planning permission for a retail and cinema complex there, but when the cinema operator pulled out of the deal, Morrisons, the food retailer mothballed the plans.

The land is now lying empty, although the retail company says that it still wants to open a new supermarket on the site.

Several ideas have been put forward on how to spend the windfall – which can only be used for capital projects and not for running services.

They range from turning an empty building in the town centre into a community hub to Oswestry Civic Centre's artistic idea for covering over the part pedestrianised Cross Street.

Town clerk David Preston said the council was committed to ensuring that the funding should be used for the widest benefit of the town.

"Priorities set by the council include converting all the street lights to LED, the provision of new public conveniences and a tourist information centre on the Central car park and a new Garden of Remembrance at the cemetery," he said.

He stressed that the council still retained all land at the site from agreements in place and would receive revenue income annually for site rent.

Plans for a new Garden of Remembrance at the cemetery are expected to cost £40,000 and the council is also putting aside £5,000 for the purchase of new equipment for its award winning CCTV system.

The council has already changed 100 of its street lights to the environmentally friendly LED bulbs but it still has 350 to convert.

Councillors meet on Monday for the annual budget setting meeting when they are expected to agree to the use of part of the Smithfield development windfall money. They will also debate the recommended 2017/18 budget that has been agreed at pre-budget seminars.

The council is expected to apply a two percent increase to the precept on the Shropshire Council rates. It would mean that Band D tax payers would see their yearly precept increased from £69.92 to £71.32.