'Social style' seating in Shrewsbury is a hit with shoppers

The new “social-style” seating in Pride Hill is designed to encourage people to enjoy spending more time in the town centre.

Seb Slater, executive director of Shrewsbury BID, said the initial reaction to the seats had been really positive.

“We had a lot of discussion with Shropshire Council about the lay-out of the street furniture in Pride Hill,” he said.

“We felt strongly that the seating needed to be designed in such a way to create social spaces, where people could relax and spend a good amount of time enjoying the atmosphere of the town centre.

“We also wanted to ensure the seating was created using high quality materials to give the best possible visitor experience.

“We have been speaking with businesses and the general public as they have been spending time in Pride Hill and overall feedback has been very positive.”

Shrewsbury BID and Shropshire Council teamed up to offer free parking in Frankwell and Abbey Foregate car parks on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during August to help encourage more visitors to the town centre.

Those car parks also be free on Sundays all year round.

To be eligible for the free parking on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, drivers need to use the MiPermit smartphone app. For more information, visit www.originalshrewsbury.co.uk/free-parking

The refurbishment, as part of the council's £12 million Shrewsbury Integrated Transport Package (SITP), was due to have been finished in November. However, there are still more finishing touches to be made, with more street furniture due to be installed in the coming days.

Businesses and members of the public roundly criticised the work which they said was not up to standard and had taken too long.

Shropshire Council sacked the initial contractors, casey Group and Wellington-based McPhillips took over the high-profile work in February. Earlier this summer, Shropshire Council said they were 2extremely pleased" at the quality of work.