During the past year, Shrewsbury Town Centre Residents’ Association has come in for a fair amount of criticism – including harsh words from a Facebook group set up to oppose them.
But there is perhaps more than meets the eye with this influential town centre group – first set up in 1991 to combat the issue of electricity strikes in Shrewsbury.
They have 275 members within the river loop and the committee of nine members and four officers are delegated to different parts of the town centre and deal with issues such as planning, quality of life, arts and culture and traffic and transport.
Meeting every month, the group uses the gatherings as a social event as well as a chance to discuss important issues with at least 40 people attending each one.
Chairman Rosemary Thornes said: “It’s fair to say it’s pretty unusual for a group such as ours to keep going for so long after the original issue for which we were set up.
“For some reason we’ve managed to keep together over the years and that could partly be down to the community feel we have created.”
The group has three main aims which are to promote a balance between residential, business and visitor interests in Shrewsbury, maintain its essential character, and to enhance the quality of life in the town.
Committee members Rosemary and Verena Waterhouse said this last point can sometimes come into conflict with other people’s views in Shrewsbury.
This was highlighted recently when a counter group of residents claimed members were working against the good of the town in its fight to keep noise levels down for concerts in the Quarry.
The Facebook group, set up in April, already has over 2,800 members.
It was created by Shrewsbury man Elliot Howells who states its purpose is to ‘counteract the appalling influence of the town centre residents association, and to give a voice to other people living in the town.’
But Rosemary takes the criticism in her stride: “The problem is that the town centre is a place that people like to come and visit and we like it to be busy and vibrant but at the same time we do live here and sometimes there can be a collision of ideas.
“These pressure groups are happening all over town and beyond and I think we were accused of quite a lot of things which were totally misdirected. I think both sides have to give and take a little bit in that situation.”
Members admit that the makeup of their association is mainly older folk – but say that is part and parcel of residents living in town centres and that they are continuing to try to get younger people on board.
“We do have younger members – some of whom are in there 30s – and families with pre-school children and teenagers. We have tried getting an even younger generation on board by leafleting but it hasn’t really bought much result so far,” added Rosemary.
“We feel quite privileged to live in the town centre and as a group we would love to have more members from those communities who we haven’t really tapped into yet – mainly because a lot of young people are often very busy.”
In recent years the association has achieved a number of goals, such as maintaining a weekly refuse collection in the centre, opening up the bandstand in the Quarry for concerts and securing funding for speed deterring signs in the centre.
For more information about the group email shrewtcra@yahoo.co.uk
By David Seadon