Decisions over Shrewsbury shopping centres and Shirehall delayed
Decisions over the future of Shrewsbury's council-owned shopping centres and a multi-million pound revamp of Shirehall have been delayed.
Both projects, which are seen as key for Shropshire Council and the future of the county town, were due to be considered later this month at cabinet and full council meetings respectively.
But, the authority has announced it is "pausing" on the decisions while it carries out more "detailed work".
Question marks have hung over Shropshire Council's plans for the town's shopping centres, Pride Hill, Darwin, and the Riverside, since it completed the £51 million purchase of the sites earlier this year.
One of the key areas of focus is the Riverside, which was previously earmarked as the site of a new centre, linking Pride Hill and the Darwin Centre via an 'anchor store' similar to Debenhams or Selfridges.
Those plans were abandoned prior to the council's purchase of the centre.
The redevelopment of Shirehall could see other organisations moving in to share part of the building, which currently houses council staff.
Council spokeswoman Laura Pell said: "The next development phase of the Shrewsbury shopping centres and the redevelopment and refurbishment of Shirehall are extremely important projects for the council and for the future of Shrewsbury as the county town.
The two projects were due to be considered at cabinet and council on July 25 and 26 respectively. In the preparation of these reports, more detailed work is required to ensure that the right decisions are made for the future development of the town centre. They will now therefore be considered at a later date.
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Councillor Peter Nutting, Shropshire Council’s Leader, said the delay was necessary to make sure the right decision is made over the future development of the town.
He said: “It’s really important that we get things right. Taking a bit more time to look at the two projects and how they could potentially work together makes sense, particularly in light of the Shrewsbury Big Town Plan.
“We have done work on the Shirehall project. Having an understanding of the condition of our main council building is important and we know that significant improvements are needed to ensure that it’s fit for purpose, and to enable us to realise our ambition to make it more commercial, allowing us to plough profit back into delivering day to day services.
“We’ve also been talking to many organisations about sharing space. These positive conversations will continue.
“Work to take our ambitious plans forward hasn’t stopped, all that we’re doing is pausing, for a moment, to make sure that we consider all of our options and make the right decisions for the future development of our county town.”
