Station Quarter: Hotel, leisure facilities and homes plan near Telford railway station

David Sidaway took over the reigns at the council earlier this month, and he said the authority would be looking at building on the success of Southwater's development as a popular leisure and retail destination in recent years.

One of the plans is to develop land between Telford's railway station and the Town Centre, creating what would be called the 'Station Quarter'.

Mr Sidaway, who previously worked at Telford & Wrekin Council before taking over as chief executive of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, was behind the plans to develop Southwater in his earlier stint at the authority.

See also:

• New Telford council chief executive already hard at work on authority's plans for the future

Now he has returned to his former council and his home town, and said they would be looking to bring more big name companies, hotel owners and, potentially, leisure facilities to Telford.

He said: "I want to strengthen our relationship with the shopping centre owners. I think we can do some joined up investment to grow the town even further.

"There is the potential for further development and the ambition is to bring further investment into what is such an exciting proposition for the investment market."

Early

He added: "We want to look at further investment in that part of town but we are also looking at a really exciting scheme called 'The Station Quarter'.

"It could be a hotel, some further residential development, maybe apartment living. There could be some commercial, but we will only complement what is a wonderful retail experience with Telford Town Centre."

Mr Sidaway said that the site could also include some kind of destination leisure service, but added that this was very early in the planning stage.

The new chief executive said he was encouraged by the events that the council had led over recent years and was keen on more large events for the borough, to follow popular free community events such as Telford's Balloon Fiesta.

He said: "What Telford & Wrekin have done in terms of delivering and management of events has been brilliant.

"They are fantastic at bringing the community together.

"I want it to be that the community can access the majority of these events for free. It is about bringing the community together and what Telford & Wrekin has delivered around that has been stunning."