Work on Shrewsbury's masterplan to begin next week

Key stakeholders in the Shrewsbury Big Town Plan will sit down with creative consultants to start the process.

It is a partnership between Shrewsbury BID, Shrewsbury Town Council and Shropshire Council to shape the future of the town for years to come.

They are meeting LDA Design, a specialist firm appointed to create the masterplan for the town and build on a public consultation in which more than 2,500 comments and ideas from the public were collected.

Seb Slater, executive director of Shrewsbury BID, said by the end of next week the team would have a better understanding of what is possible for the town in the future.

He said: "About 70 people from different organisations have been invited to a number of different workshops next week to go through everything and find out what we can do to the town.

"Once this masterplan is completed and adopted, it will sit above all of the other plans current in place. We're actually one of the first towns to take this kind of approach."

Pride

LDA Design has recently worked on transforming Gloucester and Plymouth city centres, and the People's Playground in Blackpool.

Helen Ball from the town council said the plan is to hopefully create a 3D model and online model for the public to see the vision.

She said: "People have a sense of pride in their town and love to live here, so we want to build on that. We hope that the Big Town Plan will take us into the premier league of towns like Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon."

There will be a focus on improving transport and movement in the town, creating a place for enterprise and making the most of Shrewsbury's heritage buildings like Rowley's House, the train station and flaxmill.

Claire Evans, Shropshire Council key account and investment manager, added: "We're ready to push the boundaries and do something different. Next week is a big step forward in really understanding what we can realistically do."

Once the masterplan is completed and adopted, it will act as the main blueprint for the town.

The next step is sourcing funding for the projects.