BRIDGNORTH¹S mayor has revealed that plans to use funds from a local authority legal agreement for a skateboard park on the Crown Meadow have been put on the ‘back burner.’ But Councillor Brian Jones told the the annual town meeting at the Castle Hall on Tuesday that other ways of financing the facility were now being examined.
As one of their conditions of planning permission given in 2007 for building 317 homes at the Wenlock Road development at Tasley, Persimmon Homes was asked by the district council to pledge £90,000 towards sports provision in the town.
“With the current recession biting hard, building work on the Wenlock Road site has virtually ceased, so the section 106 agreement funds which could be used for the skateboard park on Crown Meadow and other youth and play schemes have been put on the back burner,” said the mayor.
“It is hoped this will pick up again soon, but in the meantime the Shropshire Youth Service, Shropshire Council and the town council are looking at other streams of funding.”
The mayor spoke about his delight at seeing the new Whitburn Street relief road open and to be called Old Smithfield Road. “I urge people to write to the new Shropshire Council with their thoughts about the temporary traffic arrangements before the consultation period ends,” he said.
Councillor Jones said the new CCTV monitoring room was now up and running and the council continued to work closely with the police and crime prevention panel to try to keep anti-social behaviour to a minimum, particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings.
The mayor said it was now town council policy to get the Œflora and fauna¹ up to a generally good standard throughout the year and a local competition would be organised.
“It is also our intention to hire out the town hall to various groups, societies and so on to hold exhibitions and the like, to try and increase the use of this under-used facility,” he added.
He spoke of the many activities over the past year including a visit to the Severn Valley Railway by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Trevithick 200 celebrations at Severn Park and the visit of residents of twin towns Thiers and Schrobenhausen. The mayor also spoke of the town¹s success in winning a gold award in the Heart of England in Bloom competition, silver gilt in Britain in Bloom and a Cemetery of the Year award.
Guest speakers at Tuesday’s meeting were Shropshire Council interim chief executive Sheila Healy and legal and democratic services and monitoring officer Claire Porter.
