The future of Shrewsbury will be the focus of a series of public discussions and debates to kick off the next phase of the Shrewsbury Big Town Plan.
The Shrewsbury Big Town Plan Festival will take place from January 19 to 29 in the form of a series of virtual events being streamed live on the Zoom video platform.
A range of speakers, including Shrewsbury-based specialists and nationally-renowned experts, will lead the sessions looking at how Shrewsbury can develop and evolve over the coming years.
The festival will mark the start of the next phase of the Big Town Plan, as a major ‘Masterplan Vision’ for the town is published in January.
The report, produced by Glenn Howells Architects following engagement with a wide range of local stakeholders over the past year, puts forward a variety of exciting opportunities for the future development of Shrewsbury.
During the festival, the ideas set out in the report will be explored, along with sessions discussing the wider context of town centre development.
One of the speakers will be Bill Grimsey, author of the nationally acclaimed ‘Build Back Better Report for Town Centres’, who said he was delighted to be involved.
“I am looking forward to discussing the challenges and opportunities which are facing town centres all over the UK,” he said.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has made it more vital than ever for towns to have a clear and strategic plan of how they can adapt to encourage people to visit and businesses to thrive.
“Shrewsbury is leading the way by having a truly collaborative approach to town planning, and I am very happy to be involved with the discussions about these exciting proposals.”
Each session will be broadcast live on Zoom and will be available to watch on demand following the event. For more information and to register a place, visit festival.shrewsburybigtownplan.org
