MP pleads with ministers for Shrewsbury 'levelling up' millions

Shropshire Council is bidding against hundreds of other authorities for a slice of the money, which would likely be used to speed up town centre redevelopment plans, including reinventing the riverside.

The Government is expected to announce the recipients of its "Levelling Up" fund at the end of September. This week Mr Kawczynski met Regional Growth and Local Government minister Luke Hall MP, and Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The Shrewsbury MP said Mr Hall told him it was a "very popular fund" and he would be carefully considering bids.

"This would help the council speed up the redevelopment of the town centre, particularly the riverside," said Mr Kawczynski. "I had a very productive meeting. I also met with Robert Jenrick to put in a plea and lobby strongly on behalf of Shrewsbury.

"It is a really important piece of prime real estate and we could bring hundreds of millions of pounds of private sector investment. The Government is going to announce at the end of September which bids have been successful.

"It is essential to Shrewsbury's long-term development. I'll be pulling out all the stops and trying to keep this issue on the boil."

Earlier this year a "masterplan" was unveiled by the Shrewsbury Big Town Plan Partnership, setting out a range of aspirations and ideas for how Shrewsbury could change.

It featured a number of bold ideas including creating a riverside park in place of the busy Smithfield Road, making more use of the railway viaduct at Abbey Foregate, and reducing the amount of traffic in the town centre.

A consultation generated more than 2,400 contributions, and an updated document is expected to be published later in this year. There were many positive comments, though concerns were raised about how developments would be in-keeping with the town’s historic buildings, and how the transport strategy would work.