Oswestry council £4m windfall losing money, claims councillor

Oswestry Town Councillor, Duncan Kerr, has called on the council to either use the money or invest it wisely.

He said at the money the funds were diminishing because of ‘pathetic’ interest rates.

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

Planning permission was granted in 2010 for a retail and cinema complex with a new, state-of-the-art Smithfield was built on a smaller part of the site freeing up the rest.

When the cinema operator pulled out of the deal, Morrisons, the food retailer mothballed the plans.

Seven years later the land remains empty, although the retail company says that it still wants to open a new supermarket and is now re-marketing the rest of the site.

The original plans for the 16-acre site included a five-screen cinema, Morrisons supermarket, Frankie & Bennys and McDonald’s restaurants.

Talks have been held over recent years about how the money from developers should be used. At this week’s Oswestry Town Council finance meeting, Councillor Kerr said it was time a decision was made.

“The money is diminishing in real terms all the time because of the pathetic interest rates and inflation,” he said.

“I have calculated we have already lost about £79,000 which could have been used for the good of Oswestry.”

Town clerk, Mr David Preston said the council was holding a ‘visioning event’ later this year to look at councillors’ priorities for the town.

Councillor Kerr said he wanted a meeting before that specifically to look at the use of the windfall.

“Those talks could then feed into the visioning event,” he said.

The funds can only be used for capital and not revenue projects.

Oswestry Town Council has already said that it wants to open new public toilets and a visitor centre with a £450,000 fund it has set aside from the £4 million .

The building who go up on the Centre car park with councillors saying it would benefit those who use its shops, cafes and other businesses.

The finance committee agreed to hold a meeting to discuss the windfall as soon as possible.