As the inquest continues into who’s to blame for Welshpool’s town centre fiasco, the town council has been quick to clarify its role in the one-way drama.
Town Clerk Robert Robinson has been the high profile front to the development team’s public relations exercise but he says this has lead to unfair criticism of the Town Council.
Here, mywelshpool has agreed with the Town Council to publish a statement from Mr Robinson in its entirety:
Welshpool Town Centre
“Following many comments regarding the new Superstore and the one way system Welshpool Town Council feels that the record needs to be set straight as to how we have arrived where we are.
In 1995 Powys County Council allocated land on the old Livestock Market for a superstore. It is from this date that such a store was planned for Welshpool.
In 2007/8 plans came forward for approval by Powys County Council and with the superstore came a traffic management scheme as directed by the Welsh Assembly. The traffic management scheme offered was three more sets of traffic lights in addition to those at the Cross.
Welshpool Town Council and Powys County Council both agreed that a one-way system was better than more traffic light controls.
In 2008 the Town Council held a large consultation on the Town Centre with thousands of replies from residents in and around Welshpool. The result of the consultation was support for a one-way system. Also from this consultation evolved the Town Centre Plan.
This was further proved by the consultation held by the Developers and Powys County Council in 2009.
The current scheme is being implemented by the developers with approval by Powys County Council. The Town Council’s role was to ensure that residents were kept up to date with what was happening. The Town Council has also been involved in weekly meetings with the whole team to try and iron out any local problems such as the signs (which are being altered).
Before anyone blames the Town Council for the overall scheme, people should be aware that the superstore has been coming for over a decade and the Town Council is working to try and get the best out of it rather than just ‘rolling over’ and complaining about what was a decision within the Powys Unitary Plan over a decade ago.
I do hope this puts on record the history for everyone.
Yours sincerely
Robert Robinson
Town Clerk