Experts sought to assess Shrewsbury town centre freight and delivery traffic as part of aims to reduce vehicle numbers

The Shrewsbury Moves vision for transforming the way people move around the town was published by the Big Town Plan Partnership, made up of Shropshire Council, Shrewsbury Town Council and Shrewsbury BID, earlier this year.

One of the key proposals in the plan is to improve the business environment in the town centre by reducing the amount of traffic, and work is now starting to investigate how this could be achieved in the future.

A key part of the project is to assess the current nature of freight traffic, deliveries and business servicing, and specialists are being invited to undertake that work.

Paul Carvell, a board member of Shrewsbury BID with a career in transport and last-mile logistics spanning over 45 years, said it was vital to base any plans on accurate data.

He said: “An agreed aspiration of the Shrewsbury Moves strategy is to reduce heavy traffic in the town centre, but businesses will naturally need to have access to the premises for deliveries and servicing.

“There are various options available to make business logistics more sustainable, and this project is really important to establish the current nature of freight, deliveries and servicing to create a baseline position for the town centre.

“We are looking for experienced urban freight transport sustainability consultants, and are particularly interested in hearing from people who have been involved in undertaking work of this nature in similar locations to Shrewsbury, to learn from their past experiences and operational knowledge.”

Funding for the project has come from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), and Councillor Ian Nellins, Shropshire Council’s representative on the Shrewsbury Big Town Plan Partnership, said he was looking forward to seeing proposals develop.

He added: “The Shrewsbury Moves strategy contains a range of exciting ways to improve the town centre environment, and ambitious plans always require a fair amount of work to move forward.

“We are aware that it’s important to support businesses in any decision-making around transport logistics by ensuring we have accurate data about the current volume and movement of delivery traffic, which is why we are inviting experts to come in and assess the situation.”

The full tender can be found on the Shrewsbury BID website at www.shrewsburybid.co.uk and the deadline for applications is February 11, 2025.

For more information, email tenders@shrewsburybid.co.uk.