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Name:

Rosemary Thornes

Question:

I've heard it said that the best way to reduce traffic in a town centre is to guide cars to the first car park on the left as they enter the central area. Could this be used or adapted for the three major entry points to central Shrewsbury?

Response(s):

Councillor

Danny Moore

I think there is a problem with the town centre and town centre parking per say. I think that many people have advocated the use of a three point access plan to the town centre and the car parks should form part of that particular plan. The difficulty we have at the moment is the location of the car parks and I'm sure that even as a resident of 40 years when you actually enter the town centre and try and find your way round the town to some of those car parks it is quite daunting. If you imagine that as a visitor I'm sure that many people end up in the one-way system and end up going round and round indefinitely, so I think there is a need for us to manage car parking in general, I think the three point access plan with car parks located on the periphery but in close proximity to the town centre would be a major benefit.

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

Its a difficult one, the three point access plan has been looked at in various forms, and there are always various stumbling blocks as well, the bus services having to stop outside. The car parks are difficult because we are within the river loop and we also have a number of hills in the town. Its not always easy if you direct people to the first car park it won't always improve their access, if they're elderly, or if they have pushchairs and buggies and so on, to go up Wyle Cop for instance isn't an easy thing to have to do. It sounds very easy and good in theory to actually park on the periphery, I think its harder to achieve in practice especially in a town such as Shrewsbury.

Councillor

Claire Wild

I'd like to see an electric tram system all round the town centre or diesel electric buses certainly to improve the air quality within the town. I don't think that the three point access point plan will work, there's not sufficient car parking in the Castlefields area which is one of the main entrances into town. St Austin's car park you're going to have to get everyone to walk up hill into Wyle Cop. If they had a tram or an electric bus I'm sure they might.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

I think what we try to do is provide a variety of different car parks, there are surface car parks, multi storey, we charge more in the town centre and less on the edge. There's also park and ride so there's lots and lots of parking spaces, there's no reason why parking should be a problem in Shrewsbury except at the really busy times, so I actually think we're not far away from being right. The only thing I'd really like to see is a multi storey car park on the old Kennings site at the bottom of the Cop because it could be built into the hill with access to the town centre at the top of the car park onto Dogpole or somewhere there. NCP own the land, and tracking NCP down is a nightmare because the company keeps being moved to a holding company and another holding company and I'm not sure who actually owns the site anymore.

Councillor

Claire Wild

Its about two things, its about traffic but its also about the economic prosperity of the town and if we make it too difficult for people to get into the town then that's going to seriously affect the shops within the town so I think we have to have a bit of joined up thinking and put it all together.

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

I don't think its working.

Councillor

Danny Moore

I think there is also the environmental issue and if we continue to utilise the car parks in the same way that we do currently then the town centre is not only going to be congested but certainly the pollution within town centre is going to rise and that in itself will be off-putting to many people.

Name:

John Thornes

Question:

Why the car has been replaced with more polluting diesel buses, which seem to me to create a physical hazard. My daughter was almost run over by a bus turning the corner in High Street into Mardol Head. The buses often override as they turn the sharp corner to go down the hill.

Response(s):

Councillor

Peter Nutting

I think buses are a problem in High Street and on that corner and I wish I had a simple answer. 'When I were a young lad' all the Midland Red buses used to go up Town Walls, that may be an answer although the people who live on Town Walls don't want them there. It is a nightmare.

Councillor

Claire Wild

I would like to see electric buses, its a diesel electric bus which means it runs on electric for all the time that its in town and that would seriously improve the air quality.

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

I think there are too many buses coming along the High Street. I think electric buses are obviously much cleaner and better for the environment.

Councillor

Danny Moore

I would certainly like to see that linked into the three point access plan so that where people will park on the periphery, they would be served by that type of vehicle, which will allow them access into the town centre.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

Yes, I tell you something that was suggested a few years ago which I think would really help, instead of having Park & Ride buses, there's a Park & Ride site at Harlescott by the railway line, and there's a Park & Ride site at Meole Brace by the railway line, why can't we have a train going back and forth, its a thought. I think for the future its a possibility, but we're probably 20 years away.

Russell Mulford

Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council's prosperity and the viability of the town is all tied up with the car and don't lets get too het up with restricting the car. Motorists are clobbered enough. Car parking charges make the council £2million a year, and they share the cost of subsidising the Park & Ride to the tune of somewhere around £100,000 a year out of that, so they get a £million a year net I think out of car parking, or somewhere close. I'm not convinced that the car is the villain as far as pollution is concerned. I believe that the car emissions situations that we have now are nowhere near as bad as delivery vehicles and buses.

I quite like the idea of electric vehicles going around the town, but diesel electric I'm not quite familiar with that.

Councillor

Claire Wild

You can't have an all-electric bus I'm told. The closest thing you can do is have diesel to start it and then it runs on electric.

Russell Mulford

Lets have a look at the parking situation, and I'm with Peter here, the answer to that side of town is more parking at the English Bridge area with a walk way from the top of the multi storey car park in the bottom of the Cop across into St Mary's Place. Now the other one I fancy is the Howard Street site that was talked about for a car park. The site at the back of the Post Office, which is owned by the railway and filled up by Danny's red wagons. I think Howard Street would make a very good multi storey car park, the sorting office needs moving, and the access needs to go off through where the sorting office is now. Its a long time now that the sorting office has been perceived to be in the wrong place, it should to be out of town up on the Battlefield Estate. The whole area where the sorting office is now should be re-developed, including a multi storey car park.

Russell Mulford

It surprises me because I would have gone for 1 or 2, the Park and Ride doesn't excite me I'm afraid.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

I'm a fan of Park and Ride but I'm surprised its quite so popular as indicated up there.

Councillor

Claire Wild

Can I just ask the people who voted to improve the Park and Ride service actually use it regularly.

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

I'm surprised that the Park and Ride has come out so high.

Councillor

Danny Moore

I'm not at all surprised by the result because I think what it does is it supports the view that cars in general should be kept out of the town centre.

Audience

Geoff Hardy (Castlefields)

3 and 4 could be linked because you might want to improve the Park and Ride service, through longer hours which I think is a very good idea, but you might think that that might lead to pedestrianising the town centre, so one could be linked to the other, I think to separate them out makes those two figures a little false.

Audience

With the Park and Ride, why do you have to have so many buses in the daytime because a lot of the Park & Ride buses, after the commuters have gone to work, are three parts empty. It seems very strange to me that they are still running them every 10 minutes right through the day. Is it necessary to have all those buses in the daytime? Perhaps a less frequent service in the daytime, of electric buses.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

I think that the perception is that if people had to wait too long where they park their car they may go away from Park and Ride and they want to keep a really good service, to keep people interested in it.

Name:

Robert Fowke

Question:

Given the enormous increase in traffic which would be generated by any north west relief road, can the panel explain how this would affect people living in Shelton, Bicton, The Mount, the back of Frankwell and the Berwick road?

Response(s):

Councillor

Claire Wild

As far as I'm aware the north west relief road is currently in the process of consultation with all the interested parties, so I don't believe there's actually a place where the north west relief road is actually going to go.

Councillor

Danny Moore

As Claire mentioned the concept of the north west relief road is out for consultation I believe by the County Council in May of this year, but I've been around long enough, as indeed many of the people in this audience to realise that its actually nothing new. The first set of proposals in relation to the north west relief road were in the late 80s early 90s and at that time there was several routes which were put out to consultation. This authority is on record of supporting what was then known as the 'Red Route' and obviously times have moved on and we await to see what changes there are likely to be to those original proposals but I think what we've got to be mindful of is that there is quite a lot of industrial base now occurring in the Battlefield area and simply to have that infrastructure in place needs support and obviously the north west relief road will do something towards that but we need to wait see what the consultation process gives us.

Audience

Kate Anderson

I think the Council are thinking very short-term. In all the other towns where they've tried roads as a solution to traffic, it's only provided a temporary solution. Some of the routes proposed are going to destroy forever, some very precious bits of Shropshire's environment.

A solution would be a combination of buses, cycling and really trying to get people's culture to change so that rather than there being always being one person in a car, people share cars or use the bus.

Russell Mulford

You cannot develop a business and industrial the size of that at Harlescott and Battlefield without also in parallel agreeing or deciding what access roads you're going to build to it. There was a survey carried out by the Shrewsbury Chamber of Commerce or the business club which showed that there were three million vehicle movements in and out of the Battlefield site annually, carrying something like 47 million tonnes of goods, and those are being carried on existing roads, a lot of them on minor roads because that's the only way they can get in. The north west relief road goes 'hand in glove' with the development at Harlescott.

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

I think the north west relief road is a very difficult issue. In my ward I actually have The Mount, Copthorne Road and Porthill Road and a lot of people in those areas feel that the answer might be the north west relief road because Frankwell is extremely congested and we know we have hot-spots for air quality and so on. It is a difficult issue because now there are at least six routes, six options available for people to look at going out for consultation and the worry is that if you build a new road initially the traffic does seem to reduce, but after a while, as we've seen on Shelton Road and Roman Road it seems to just move back up again, so I have to say I am not yet decided on which way I would like to see this argument go. I'm leaning towards the fact that there should be a north west relief road.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

I'm a fan of the north west relief road, I think its important for the economy of the town. It would free up Smithfield Road and Frankwell. I do think there needs to be an outer route, which shouldn't actually join up to Welshpool Road, it should go to the island on the road to Cruckton. I think that's the key to it all, is having the right route. The Welshpool Road is totally unsuitable for any more traffic than it takes already.

Name:

Ronald Richardson and Peter Hammond

Question:

Could the council please explain why they are so reluctant to provide funding for an indoor bowls centre in the Shrewsbury area. Bowls is a sport, which is enjoyed not only by both young and old but also by disabled and even blind people. Therefore if the council believe in "sport for all" then the local bowls community should not have to travel to Wales (Welshpool) to play indoor bowls?

Response(s):

Councillor

Peter Nutting

There is £600,000 in the Council budget to provide facilities for bowlers. The site is one of the problems, one of the other problems is, we could have accommodated some of the bowls within the sports centre that's being built at Sundorne, but the bowlers want an exclusive facility just for them, they don't want to share it with other sports.

Name:

Mr Jack Simcoe

Chair St Michael Lawn Green Bowling Club

Question:

December 2003 Sports Needs Survey, Indoor Bowling was the top priority sport. The number one priority in March 2004 Cabinet Budget was fully financed with a £2million ring-fenced for its construction by the Cabinet in May 2004. The bowlers are concerned that despite this the indoor bowls centre appears to have a very uncertain future.

Response(s):

Councillor

Peter Nutting

What we have said to the bowlers is that if we can't find a site before September it will come back to Cabinet in September for further consideration, but the site is the problem and the fact that the bowlers want an exclusive facility, they're not prepared to share with other sports. To provide the sort of facility they are talking about, its probably going to cost over £2million. We put £600,000 in the budget, which are the fitting out costs, it's a considerable amount of money.

Councillor

Danny Moore

When the sports village was first muted the idea was that it would be a multi-faceted type of facility and therefore you would have indoor bowling, indoor cricket was mentioned and various other sports linked to it. Unfortunately the decision was that they would go primarily with football and a small indoor type of arena that would provide certain other activities. I think the whole scheme at Sundorne, whilst supported it in principal, has been badly thought through in terms of what is actually needed and what could be provided there.

I believe there should be a bowls facility but not exclusive with the bowling club, it has to be facility that all sections of the community can enjoy and share.

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

I feel the bowlers have been let down. Initially it was included in the scheme for Sundorne Sports Village, it was decided by the Conservative administration, it was pulled. I think it was because the scheme had to be rushed through almost, because of the funding that was required for the other facilities there. The bowlers were given an assurance verbally that the bowling facilities would be built, as yet they've got nothing in writing.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

The way its been presented to me, when I've spoken to bowlers in the past, they want not only the bowling facility to themselves but they want what I call the community room and the bar area and the cafe area to themselves. They don't want it to be a multi-purpose area and that was what was offered to them at Sundorne.

Audience

Jack Simcoe

We were quite willing to share it from the very beginning.

Russell Mulford

People go from Shrewsbury to Welshpool to play bowls, the formula they operate at Welshpool is acceptable to all, so obviously they take visitors at Welshpool, they welcome the Shrewsbury people. We want that same formula transferred to Shrewsbury. Problem solved.

Name:

M.D. Maxwell

Question:

How high a priority does the Borough place on spending money to increase the attractiveness of the River Severn for the benefit of residents, tourists, wildlife, and all those who have the well-being of the river at heart?

Response(s):

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

I think there is a River Liaison Group. I'm sure there was money in the budget to develop facilities and new schemes for the river. I do think its important that we make the most of the river, I think its a very attractive asset to the town.

Councillor

Claire Wild

In truth the Borough Council don't have a particularly high priority for making the river Severn more attractive. If we're serious about tourism, if we're serious about going down that route then we certainly should be looking at it. I do think the river is an underused facility.

Councillor

Danny Moore

We have probably one of the most attractive towns in the whole of the country and what I find regrettable is that the current administration are planning to cut £55,000 from the tourism budget, from the Museums service and they have also moved away from a body which has done a tremendous amount of work to promote the town, that is the Shrewsbury Town Centre Partnership. If we are serious about promoting this town, tourism and attracting people then we've got to be able to make certain provision to make sure that happens. The use the river is an inherent part of the tourism trade. We could certainly do a lot more if that £55,000 was not cut from the budget.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

I think we do some with the river but certainly not enough. There was a Development Control meeting where the officers were saying 'no' to a floating restaurant on the Quarry side of the Welsh Bridge, but I believe the Councillors said 'yes'. There is a tension that the Councillors are trying to promote the river more than the actual officers. We've got to use the river it's one of our greatest assets.

Russell Mulford

They'll all come by car of course, to use the river. Its interesting to hear Danny say this, and make his point and if I might be a bit political here, it always 'irks' me as a rate payer and an observer of the Borough Council why you and the Liberal Democrats do not take a full part in the Council's administration, by refusing to join the Cabinet. Its alright 'shooting from afar' and knocking what the administration is doing but the way to do it is surely to get in on the Cabinet and make your point there, and try and influence the Cabinet from within not from the public gallery so to speak.

Councillor

Danny Moore

That's a very good point Russell, but the problem with the Cabinet is that members of the Cabinet have a portfolio of responsibilities to deliver services etc on behalf of the authority. I am sure that Peter would not wish to hand that responsibility over to members of the Labour group or the Liberal group, knowing full well that we weren't prepared to follow the Conservative mandate.

Audience

Mike Arthur

How do we define making use of the river? I think thousands of Shrewsbury residents make use of the river by just enjoying its tranquillity as it is. Maybe there could be some tidying up done.

Audience

I'm very gratified to know that the panel do consider the river to be the greatest asset of the town and I'd like to link it back to the previous question about the north west relief road. If the route is built, then the most beautiful part of the river in this town is destroyed. Those who voted in favour of the road should realise that this is the greatest environmental threat to Shrewsbury in living memory, and don't vote for it if you want to preserve the river. The north west relief road would destroy the old river bed, it would go right across the part of the river by the Berwick estate, there would be a massive bridge flying over to Shelton water tower, that part of the river would be destroyed for ever.

Russell Mulford

How on earth is the north to west relief road going to destroy the river? The Preston island to Sundorne road goes over the river twice, it doesn't destroy the river.

Audience

Mr Mulford, you seem to be doing a party political broadcast, rather than acting as an independent arbiter. If you'd like to canvas the opinion of Friends of the Earth, The Wildlife Trust, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England then you'll get the expert view, but they are all against this route because of the massive environmental damage, and how you can claim, as the Chamber of Commerce claims, that there is an environmental benefit for this route it would amaze me.

Councillor

Mrs Eileen Sandford (in the audience)

I am the Harlescott Councillor and I would suggest that Mr Mulford is very right, but what I want to say is that people have a misconceived idea, that when you build the bridge it has to be ugly, in actual fact the environment can be greatly improved by some of these main routes. You've only got to look at the sides now after five or six years, of some of these new routes to understand that.

Name:

Mr Dave Green

Question:

We are pleased to see improved recycling in the borough but there is still much to be done, particularly as the Shropshire Waste Management Partnership have set a recycling target of 63% by 2020. Are the councillors fully committed to:

1. extending the kerbside recycling collection to cover the whole of the borough

2. extending the green waste collection to cover the whole year.

Response(s):

Councillor

Claire Wild

Yes, personally I'm very committed to recycling, I've been banging on about it for years. As far as the first one, that's currently at 90%. There are no plans to increase it to 100% because the last 10% of people, of which I am one, are right out in the sticks.

I go to Tescos, or Sainsburys, occasionally I go to the recycling facility and I compost a lot.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

Yes, I think we are all committed to it. Green waste is definitely going to be extended through the winter, starting in the next financial year and it will incorporate cardboard collection into the green waste. That's already on the cards.

Extending the kerbside collection, as Claire said, there are some areas where it just doesn't pay to do it. The one thing that we are thinking about, which is controversial, I say we're thinking at this stage about, is what is called alternative weekly collections where you have two wheelie bins and the one is for your green waste and the other is for your general refuse and you have about four or five bins for glass, paper etc but your main bin would only be collected every other week. That's the way to drive up recycling figures.

Councillor

Danny Moore

We do need to move on. We do need to provide more facilities for recycling.

The two bins? - I would await the result of the consultation before I would commit myself. Personally I haven't got a problem with the two bins because in a household such as ours we don't generate that much waste but the concept is good in terms of getting people into the habit of doing it, and I think its more of a case of education with regards to recycling but we certainly need to do a lot more and we could certainly do a lot more if we were involved in the partnership which exists in the rest of Shropshire at the moment.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

We are working closely with the partnership. We refuse to form a formal partnership because we do not think its for the benefit of the rate payers of Shrewsbury and Atcham because of the costs involved.

We actually collect more rubbish per house than any of the other councils and therefore our recycling figures aren't always as good as the other councils. I don't know what happens to the rubbish in the other areas if it's not collected by the bin men. I'm far from convinced that we should join the partnership because financially I think we could end up worse off.

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

I think on extending the scheme, now that we have the milder winters I think its something you've got to do. Up until now we've made quite substantial leaps in our recycling targets. We've had targets to achieve and we've done it. We've brought the green collection in, which has certainly helped. Now I think when we're given targets it will be much harder to achieve and that's why you've got to start looking at the alternate weekly collections. That's why the people who normally say well its up to the Council to sort out the rubbish, now are going to be almost forced to recycle.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is that one of the reasons why we didn't want to join the partnership is that we have our own workforce in Shrewsbury and Atcham, The Direct Service Organisation (DSO). We are keen to keep it, we like having a workforce that we can control and we can use for other things at times. If we go into the waste partnership we would lose that workforce.

Name:

John Simblett

Question:

For a variety of reasons, the Borough has been unable to deliver anything like the necessary low-cost or social housing. Why does it not follow the same robust policies towards developers as South Shropshire, a comparable area, in always requiring significant affordable and social housing in return for planning permission?

Response(s):

Councillor

Claire Wild

South Shropshire are able to do that because they have the planning policies in force to do it, we don't. We are currently reviewing our Local Plan and all our planning policies and the review will be completed this year.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

South Shropshire have this policy where 50% of all developments are social housing. The problem is the developers are saying we're not going to the develop sites, we're going to sit on them and that's what's happening in South Shropshire. We are delivering far more homes in this area than South Shropshire are, we've a policy of 33% because that actually encourages developers to develop the sites. In South Shropshire the developers are saying the targets are too stringent, we can't afford to develop the sites and if you actually look at the numbers that have been provided in South Shropshire in the last 12 months, its in single figures. I think we're doing more than South Shropshire.

Councillor

Danny Moore

I don't believe we're doing enough and I don't believe we're doing anything like South Shropshire because SABC are only delivering affordable housing through Planning Policy and at the moment that stands at any development over 25 properties. The developer has an obligation to provide 33% of the remaining total as affordable. When you take that Severnside, who is the main housing association in this area, has somewhere in the region of three thousand plus people looking for affordable homes, that highlights the extent of the problem and with this authority sitting on the £53 million that Eric referred to at the start of this programme, I think its a travesty that we're not getting our priorities right and addressing that particular need. We should be addressing that as high as the priority seems to be with regards to the provision of the New Entertainment Venue and all of the other things, like the Livestock Market etc etc. I think there's more that needs to be done to address this particular problem.

Councillor

Anne Chebsey

I've heard about the scheme in South Shropshire and I know its generated a lot of interest throughout the whole country. We had a housing needs survey done here and its given us a very good idea of the type of housing we need, not just we need more housing, but the actual type of housing we do need. As Claire said, the policies are being looked at. We had a working party looking at housing and we made 12 suggestions and some of them were obviously to do with the policies because you need the robust policies in place so that you can use them – you don't let developers 'off the hook', if you like. I think you do have to be very careful you don't put developers off developing a site, but also I do think you need that affordable housing for your young people otherwise we simply become an aging population.

Councillor

Claire Wild

One of the things that did come out of the housing needs survey was that in order to satisfy that need we would need to provide 70% of affordable houses on all new housing developments, and that isn't going to happen.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

The Labour government say provide the houses, they have actually withdrawn local government social housing grant from councils. There is another issue and its in a Labour ward of the town. We have a Labour councillor in the town asking for affordable housing. We found a site in a Labour ward and now he's saying 'it wasn't me, I didn't want these houses in this area'. That's the big problem, nobody wants them by their back door.

Councillor

Danny Moore

Peter is allowing politics to get in the way, the reason I say this is, there is £10million sat aside in the Council's capital funding programme for the provision of affordable housing. If you look at your Council Tax bills this year you will note that there is an insert which shows what the Council is planning to do over future years. You will not see any of that expenditure ear-marked for the fourth-coming year and therefore housing is primarily low on the priorities of this administration. We have £10 million, we should use it, we need to use it and we can't realistically just say that that is sitting there gaining interest in order to keep Council Tax low, when we've got this particular major problem in the town.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

Can I ask then, are Labour then going to support the scheme that we are going to spend £1.5million in a Labour ward? Do you support it?

Councillor

Danny Moore

How can I not, having said what I've said.

Audience

(1)

I don't know how Peter Nutting can sleep at night, putting forward the drivel that he's just put forward. I don't think he's really serious and I don't think he's really listening or taking us seriously on what we're saying. The proof is there, that we do need some more affordable housing here. South Shropshire is doing it very well, I think you need to listen Peter, and not get political and not blame it onto the Labour party.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

I know more about housing than most people, I'm part of the Shropshire Housing Group who are discussing this.

Audience

(2)

I was under the impression that 500 new and affordable houses were going to be built with the £10million that Danny brought up and my question was, 'What have you done with the £10million?'.

Audience

(3)

1. Could we be told how many houses have been provided as affordable housing in the past year?
2. There are many schemes, one sees around the Borough, do they therefore provide affordable houses? They are not very apparent.

Councillor

Peter Nutting

We're up to about 300 in three years, I'm not sure in the last 12 months.

Councillor

Claire Wild

I think its a hundred over the past year. Its not enough, but to satisfy the need for all the affordable houses in the borough we're going to have to build 70% of each new development, it just isn't going to happen.

Audience

(4)

I was a member of the Council when we agreed to transfer the housing stock. The capital fund that was transferred to the Council, if I remember rightly it was approaching £60million. One of the reasons that we took that decision was, we thought that it would enhance the possibilities of building affordable houses. There must be a lot of very disappointed people about. I think if the current Council Members had applied the enthusiasm to low cost housing as they have to the new theatre and the Livestock Market we might have had a better result.