©2003

National Organisation of Residents Associations

Shrewsbury town centre is unique in the UK. It lies on a hill in an ox-bow bend of the river Severn and is half a mile across. There are over 600 listed buildings, many of them Grade 1 and Grade 2*. Over a 1000 residents live in the vicinity of a prosperous retail centre, numerous service facilities, and at weekends a busy evening and night culture. Like most town and city centre residents, they have to contend with heavy traffic, noise, litter, anti-social behaviour, vandalism, crime and disorder, the latter especially at weekends. As a consequence of contentious traffic management proposals put forward by the Highway Authority in the 1980s, proposals that residents believed would hazard their quality of life, the Association was founded. Battles with local authorities proved successful initially and encouraged the Association to take an interest in numerous other aspects of development in the town centre. Two committee members became responsible for studying all planning applications affecting the town centre, but the most worrisome development was the appearance of large licensed premises in the town centre.

So the first serious matter to be taken up was that of licensing. With the appearance of large pubs and clubs and hot food take-aways in the town centre, young people in large numbers appeared late at night disturbing the peace of residents. A campaign to try to control the spread of this problem was started. The Association decided to design policies to cover our approach to protecting the quality of life of its members, and this included a Licensing Policy.

Where changes of use are sought or a new building proposed, objections to the Planning Department may be made. If the planning application is refused and a planning appeal follows, objections will be repeated. If the Planning Inspector grants the appeal, then with the new Licensing Act 2003, if objections were still valid, they would be made to the Licensing Authority. If the premises licence is granted, it is unlikely, as matters stand, that we would pursue appeals to the Magistrates Courts because of the risk of having costs awarded against us.

With the new system of licensing this policy has had limited success. We have succeeded in controlling the noise emanating from premises by obliging landlords to close doors and windows when regulated entertainment takes place and ensured that noise limiters are placed on amplifying equipment under the control of the Environmental Health Department. Sadly we have failed so far to limit the opening hours, but in some instances we have been able to restrict entry to licensed premises shortly after midnight and so reduce the problem of pub crawling at night. Cooperation with the Planning Department, local Councillors and the Licensing Officer are proving invaluable.

Association committee members - there are twelve - and some ordinary members now have seats on the Development Control Liaison Committee, the Executive Committee of the Shrewsbury Town Centre Management Partnership, the River Users Group, the Police Community Consultative Group, Town Centre Strategy Group and several other bodies. Although much of the local media publicity tends to report mostly the negative aspects of the Association's actions, positive activities are considerable. Perhaps the most important development prompted and promoted by the Association was a concerted effort to make a main town centre road safer for pedestrians by introducing Berlin cushions to slow the traffic. A more recent action has been to restore an important open churchyard by clearing debris, planting shrubs and providing trellis work to deter graffiti artists despoiling a fine wall to the churchyard.

In Shropshire there are many amenity groups besides the Shrewsbury Town Centre Residents' Association. Their policies and raison d'etre are different, but where our interests and concerns coincide, cooperation is both useful and sensible. The local Civic Society, Council for the Preservation of Rural England, Friends of the Earth are all bodies that have worked together with the Association in supporting and objecting to proposals that affect our interests.

In addition to these committee activities, there is a continuing programme of events. These include an annual garden party, each year in a different private garden in the town centre, an annual dinner, and a series of evening talks by a variety of speakers. Speakers have included local Councillors, Chief Executive of the Borough Council, Chief Fire Officer, Sir Neil Cossons, Borough Tree Officer and the Conservation Officer. The Association also publishes a small quarterly newsletter, the Towndweller.

New Council Offices In recent months several major proposals affecting life in the town centre have arisen, and committee members have needed to become embroiled in time-consuming arguments and discussions regarding these developments. The Borough appointed a vigorous Chief Executive, who wants to see changes in the town centre. A key proposal that ignited much controversy is the development of a large brick office block on the edge-of-town-centre flood plain in Frankwell. It replaces all of the disparate historic buildings occupied by the Borough Council. It has now been built and was occupied in March 2004. The historic 18C Guildhall and 19C Oakley Manor, where meetings were held, have been sold and are being developed into residential accommodation.

New Tesco Superstore The second major development was an application for an out-of-town Tesco Superstore to replace its nearby foodstore. The impact of the large comparison goods section of such a development on the retail sector of the town centre could be considerable. There are over 350 shops in the town centre - a greater number than all the shops in the Bluewater enterprise in Kent - and a large number of them are small and owner-managed. The viability of these shops might be seriously threatened by a large superstore with a major element selling comparison goods such as clothing.. The Borough Planning Committee approved the proposal, which involves the Borough selling its large Livestock Market site for the development. The Secretary of State called in the proposal, and the Association joined a consortium objecting on the grounds that it was against current Government policy and policies in the Local Structure Plan and a threat to the prosperity of the town centre and its historic environment. Repairs and maintenance of its numerous historic buildings, many used by the retail sector, could well suffer because of a downturn in trade. The public inquiry began on 11 March and finished on 20 March 2003. The objectors asked for the proposal to be refused, but if approved that no more than 10% of the floorspace should be devoted to comparison goods and excluding clothing in order to protect town centre trade. The Planning Inspector's Report went to the Deputy Prime Minister's Office in May 2003, but amazingly some of the papers disappeared en route from Bristol to London, and the decision was only announced in July 2004, some sixteeen months later. The Planning Inspector had agreed with all our arguments and recommended refusal but this was overturned by the Deputy Prime Minister, going against all his public statements regarding the need to protect town centres from out-of-town superstores. We now need to press for supportive measures for our town centre to combat the competition from what will be the largest store in Shropshire. It was opened in April 2007 and we await its effect on town centre prosperity.

Music Hall Campaign A third debate has been about the development of a new entertainment complex. Shrewsbury has a Music Hall and three theatres. The Music Hall is the main entertainment venue, but the theatres have all failed. One is a Bingo Hall, another is an Antiques market and the third is being converted into flats. The new entertainment complex is under construction in the flood plain in Frankwell adjacent to the new Borough office block. There are concerns regarding flooding, car parking and an obtrusive fly-tower, as well as funding concerns, both capital and revenue. Remains of the mediaeval bridge have been exposed, researched and buried, because it lies under the proposed stage. The Music Hall, a fine 1840s building with an auditorium of shoe box design - the best acoustic shape, will become the Museum, the Art gallery and Tourist Information Centre. There is a strong loyalty to the Music Hall to keep it for musical events but this has been thwarted. The historic Rowley's Mansion and Rowley's House currently housing the museum and art gallery will have to find a new use. So there is still controversy.

Cinema in 16C Market Hall One of the landmark Grade 1 buildings in The Square, Shrewsbury's centre-piece, is the 16C Market Hall and Borough-owned. Being empty for some years once the Magistrates' Courts were removed, it had decayed to the extent that it became a national scandal. Its restoration costing over £1M has revealed a wonderful open hall full of light, which had been needed by the wool merchants, who built it in order to sell their cloth. The Borough has divided the hall into a cafe at one end and a cinema at the other. Access to the main floor is by stairways, but the Disability Discrimination Act demanded a lift. The Borough Council approved the scheme, now completed, and open to the public. The cafe is attractive and the cinema comfortable and both are well patronised. So far this adaptation is proving to be a success.

Traffic Management A scheme designed some years ago by the County Council to divert light traffic from one of the main shopping streets to an important residential street was withdrawn as a result of representations to councillors. We have a 20 mph speed limit in most of the town centre, which we all support. The latest traffic problem to face town centre residents is the implementation of the "decriminalisation of parking", which is being enforced more rigorously than when on-street parking was under the control of the police.

Development of Gay Meadow Finally there is the move of Shrewsbury Town Football Club from the Gaye (original spelling) Meadow, adjacent to the town centre, to a new site on the outskirts of the town. The Gaye Meadow is to be converted into high-rise apartment blocks to pay for its move. Work on the new club premises is now well advanced.

Well, that's Shrewsbury town centre as of 1 May 2007. We now have features from Bath, Bristol, Chichester, Leeds and Norwich. In order to display a comprehensive portfolio of members' problems, Features from all member organisations are needed.