A stretch of one of Bridgnorth¹s greatest assets - the town’s riverside - is about to be given a major facelift in readiness for the tourist season.
Work will be starting next week on tidying up the east bank between Severn Park and the bridge.
The project is one of three that the Bridgnorth Riverside Enhancement Steering Group is planning before the district council is swallowed up by the new unitary authority. It will involve removal of overgrown scrub, coppicing of trees, providing refuges for wildlife before the nesting season and planting new shrubs and trees.
The group, which was set up by the district council¹s community improvement committee two years ago, had been limited in what it had been able to achieve because of delays in funding.
But, together with the Town Centre Partnership, it is now also involved in putting up new direction and information signs along the riverside and is applying for planning permission to put up a viewing platform/rest area at the western end of Foundry Park, off Bandon Lane.
“A major concern of the group has been the lack of maintenance policy for the riverside, as no public body has assumed overall responsibility,” said chairman Dr Chris Jephcott. “It has drawn up a long-term vegetation management strategy, but its future after April 1 is obviously uncertain.
“These projects, together with the reconstruction of the Severn Way footpath south of the Quayside last summer are a start, but the riverside is one of Bridgnorth’s greatest assets and we hope that some way of continuing the work of our group under the new Shropshire Council can be found,” he added.
A total of about £80,000 has been made available for work by the group and of this about £28,000 was spent on the Severn Way.
The majority of the funding has been made available through the district council, with contributions also coming from the town council, the Government agency Advantage West Midlands, Tourist Action Plan EU funds and Shropshire County Council second homes tax.