Shrewsbury bus station could be scrapped as part of shopping centre plans

Shropshire Council leader Peter Nutting revealed the future of the transport hub in Shrewsbury is being considered as part of the wider redevelopment of the Riverside shopping centre.

It comes as the unitary authority purchased the leasehold of Riverside, plus the freehold of the Charles Darwin and Pride Hill shopping centres in January at a cost of £51 million.

Councillor Nutting said: “We are considering the future of the bus station. Towns don’t have old-fashioned bus stations like that now.

“There is a question of do you need a bus station or could we use the overflow bus station on the other side of the road just as a pull-in and out and if so, would that be sufficient? So there’s work going on on that basis.”

Councillor Nutting stressed that decisions would not be made in haste.

He continued: “Whatever we do has got to be high class and high quality because it’s going to be there for probably a 100 years or even more. If we do it properly it could be there forever.

No rush

“There’s no rush, there’s no panic to do it. Let’s take a year or two to get our ideas together and then we will see where we go with that.”

Councillor Nutting said that although the multi-million pound redevelopment of the shopping centres has to be commercial, that does not mean it has to focus on retail, with options for a hotel, university accommodation and public space all being considered.

But he did stress the council is looking at how much it will cost, with a view to making a 10 per cent return on any investment, adding: ”It is still a lot of money but it will take place over the next couple of years, just reshaping some of the units and upgrading the place generally, but if you look at them they are trading quite well.

“It is difficult trading circumstances at the moment but in the long-term I am confident Shrewsbury will do well going forward.”

By Emily Lloyd, local democracy reporter