In Bloom judges given tour of Pride Hill works as part of Shrewsbury visit

Shrewsbury had visits from Heart of England in Bloom and Britain in Bloom judges at the end of last month and Shrewsbury Town Council decided to incorporate the roadworks on the town's main shopping street into part of the tour.

Shrewsbury Town Council's clerk Helen Ball said: "We had big discussions about what to do, whether to totally avoid Pride Hill and the roadworks, as we could, but the regional judges do come to Shrewsbury quite often and the national judges come by train and stay the night before, so we took the view that we were going to tackle it head on.

"We went down Pride Hill and introduced the judges to our colleagues dealing with Pride Hill.

"We showed them pictures of what it is going to look like and they could see work in progress.

"They had discussions with the officers and saw that in a town like Shrewsbury no time is a good time to do roadworks like this.

"We've got a huge footfall so we've got to take it as it is.

"I don't think we would lose huge points, it shows that this town is starting to look at its future and it wants to be a town that's moving shaking rather than one that is just steeped in history."

The council's chief executive Clive Wright has previously said he felt "let down" and admitted that the council is "extremely dissatisfied" with progress on Pride Hill, which is part of the £12 million Shrewsbury Integrated Transport Package.

Work to replace the brick red setts with York stone pavers, install new street furniture and planters began at the end of April, with an anticipated completion date of November.

The managing director of Casey Group, which is carrying out the work, said the project had been delayed at the start but that they were working with the council to complete the refurbishment.

Mrs Ball said the majority of feedback from judges was very good.

She added: "The Heart of England in Bloom judges gave us some feedback as we had the Britain in Bloom judges coming the week after.

"The majority of the feedback was very good, they just said less is more, we should go to less places but show them in more detail.

"We took on board a lot of their comments ready for the national judges the week after.

"The route was slightly tweaked, we brought together a lot more of the community groups, and generally speaking from staff who were involved in the day they said judges were very responsive to what they saw."

"Bloom is very important to us because it's like our peers judging how we do.

"When you've got a town that's entered as long as we have, having challenges to rise to the standard is really important."