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Press Release. 18 May 2010. For immediate release.

Campaigners say a bid to introduce a new gyratory traffic scheme to the centre of Oswestry will, if approved, lead to regular gridlock, reduce pedestrian safety and damage the character of the market town. The plans are part of a revised bid by developers J Ross to build a large retail scheme on the Central Car Park. [1]

Peter Lloyd, Secretary of the Trinity Residents Group says: “This is a crazy idea. The original plans for the Central Car Park site would have led to excruciating congestion on Salop Road. That was bad enough, but now the applicants want to disperse traffic away from Salop Road into the network of small streets that surround the town centre. At peak times, 546 vehicles will leave the store site every hour. That’s one every six seconds. These traffic projections are horrendous. Even the new gyratory system the developers propose will become gridlocked because a vehicle every three seconds ix expected to pass Sainsburys at peak times. This is a one lane road which is already frequently congested.”

Campaigners are also concerned about the increased traffic on the town’s narrow streets, especially English Walls and Roft Street.

Peter continues: “These plans will not only lead to frequent gridlock. They will reduce the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. It is vital that this scheme is rejected by county planners. It would be entirely destructive to our town centre.”

Mike Bullen, Chairman of CPRE Oswestry says: “Although this scheme is in the town centre where retail development should be, it is far too large for a town the size of Oswestry. The developers could have produced plans that added to the character and viability of the town. Instead, they have designed a development that will generate so much traffic it will choke the life out of the town. In 1995 a much small development on the Central Car Park, with parking for 250 cars was refused on the grounds of disrupting traffic and on conservation grounds. So why can a larger development meet planning regulations if a smaller one failed 15 years ago. What has changed?”

Notes

[1] The Central Car Park scheme is one of four vying for planning permission in Oswestry. All four were considered at a special Shropshire Council Strategic Planning Committee meeting on 18 March 2010. Planners decided to defer all four applications for three months to allow promoters of the Central Car Park scheme time to address concerns about traffic management and other matters. The revised applications are expected to be considered by the Council on 25 June.

Further Information

• More on Saving Oswestry