Pedestrian marshals have been drafted in to help people cross the road at traffic hotspots caused by the town’s new road scheme.
The marshals are in place at the bottom of Wyle Cop until the end of the week to assist people in navigating around the roadworks.
The ‘guides’ were put in place by the county council on Tuesday after it became clear that pedestrians were struggling to cross the bottleneck at the bottom of the hill safely.
There is a constant flow of traffic travelling into town and vehicles are approaching the spot from different directions to normal. The traffic scheme, which started last week, has seen Dogpole and St Mary’s Street closed while the third part of the Town Centre Enhancement Scheme is carried out.
But traffic engineers maintain that the system of road closures and diversions which will be in place for the next six weeks is going well.
Jeremy Salisbury, principal engineer, said: “We have provided pedestrian marshals at Wyle Cop who are assisting people to navigate the road works.
“They will hopefully only be needed until the end of the week as by that time that work being carried out there will have moved up the hill meaning pedestrians can cross more easily. The work on Wyle Cop was always scheduled to take place now. We couldn’t do it before as the street was too narrow to carry out the work and maintain the two way flow of traffic.”
Mr Salisbury said he was happy with the way that the traffic scheme was working and said that the flow of vehicles had improved: “We are constantly updating the signs and looking at provision for pedestrians. We have made improvements to Castle Foregate and once the marshals have finished at Wyle Cop they may be moved to other locations.”
Meanwhile, Phillip Freeman, manager of the Parade Shopping Centre, has lashed out at the new traffic arrangements, claiming it makes the town centre ‘out of bounds’. He said: “How better could Shrewsbury be saying a big NO to shoppers and visitors who have a choice to go elsewhere?”
On Tuesday, a listed wall outside St Mary’s Church was knocked down by a lorry driver trying to get around the town under the new arrangements.
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