Recent party-political surveys and communications conflate the Big Town Plan with the delivery or cancellation of individual road schemes which the partnership has not had any control over, such as the Station Gyratory, North West Relief Road or the decision to cancel Meole Brace Park & Ride.
The Big Town Plan is a long-term partnership between Shropshire Council, Shrewsbury Town Council and Shrewsbury BID, covering the whole vitality of the town – supporting businesses, protecting Shrewsbury’s heritage and character, improving public spaces, and making the town centre easier and more pleasant to move around.
Since 2016, the Partnership has run more than a dozen rounds of public consultation and engagement, receiving over 8,000 responses, which have informed proposals on town centre movement, the Design Code, traffic reduction and the wider aims of the Big Town Plan. We have held public festivals and drop-in events, run an online engagement hub and held dedicated consultations with residents and businesses.
When consulted in our Town Centre Traffic Survey, 79% of our respondents were ‘supportive’ or ‘very supportive’ of measures to reduce through traffic in the town centre, and a clear majority of businesses supported measures to reduce through-traffic and create a more pedestrian-friendly town centre. In our later consultation on the Big Town Plan’s Masterplan Vision, 71% of 2,400 responses were either positive or neutral about proposals. In a major public consultation on the aims specific to the Movement Strategy, 63% of 710 respondents felt ‘happy’, ‘satisfied’ or ‘neutral’ on traffic-reducing measures for the town centre.
The station gyratory project was funded by UK Government and delivered by Shropshire Council as the Highways authority. The Big Town Plan Partnership supported the original funding bid to government which sought to reduce vehicle volumes at the gyratory and through traffic in the town centre.
Once funding was secured, the scheme was developed by Shropshire Council as Highway authority with no meaningful involvement with the Big Town Plan Partnership. The Big Town Plan Partnership Board repeatedly and formally raised concerns during the design phase of the gyratory project but these were not heeded. We have presented our concerns about the lack of engagement, the design and delivery of the scheme to the cross-party Task and Finish Group, whose recent findings and recommendations we welcome.
The North West Relief Road (NWRR) was also a Shropshire Council Highways scheme. The Big Town Plan Movement Strategy was deliberately never predicated on the NWRR being delivered, given the road’s contested status and uncertain funding. Shropshire Council has since determined that the NWRR is unaffordable, and the Department for Transport has said there is no further funding available for the project. This plainly affects how the Movement Strategy can be taken forward, but the cancellation of the NWRR should not stop the town taking bold steps to improve how movement and access works for our town.
Regardless of the NWRR, we believe this town deserves better public transport, better car parking, better pedestrian access, better infrastructure for alternative modes of transport and a town centre that works better for all residents. The decision to suspend Meole Brace Park & Ride has further been taken solely by Shropshire Council as part of its public transport strategy review, which is an entirely separate project from the Big Town Plan Partnership.
The hard truth is that car ownership is going up, houses continue to be built, and doing nothing has only one outcome for a town with our medieval road layout – that traffic congestion, air quality, noise pollution and parking capacity will get worse and the town centre economy will decline over time unless bold steps are taken.
A recent party-political survey in opposition to the Big Town Plan Partnership was distributed to 27,000 and completed by 205 respondents – a response rate of 0.76%. It is striking that, in the distributing party’s own words, respondents ranked protecting Shrewsbury’s heritage, supporting local businesses and improving transport and access as their top priorities – exactly what the Big Town Plan exists to support. We would welcome involvement from anyone who wants to shape that work to get involved through the opportunities the Partnership provides.
We call on all of Shrewsbury’s political parties, groups and elected representatives to engage positively and constructively in this work. Shrewsbury’s future is too important to become a political football. Whatever our differences, we share the same goal – a thriving, accessible and welcoming town that works for residents, businesses and visitors alike. Our door is open to everyone willing to work with us in that spirit to make our town a better place.
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