Welshpool mulls town centre pedestrianisation

Welshpool Town Council is to ask residents if they want the local authority to turn the town centre in a pedestrian-only zone in a bid to make it a bustling shopping hub with a café culture.

The issue was a surprise addition at this week’s Strategy, Policy and Development Committee meeting when the Chair, Cllr Phil Pritchard, interrupted a discussion about greenery in the town centre by saying: “Can I just make you aware of one query I had right out of the blue when they stopped me and I didn’t have an answer.

“The question was: ‘why don’t we make the whole of Broad Street pedestrianised and have the traffic to go around the town so people feel safe and able to move around when they are here?’.

“I must say I was speechless and didn’t have an answer, but the more I have thought about it since, you can always find reasons (to say) why not?”

Cllr Morag Bailey, who has been helping with a consultation this summer asking for people’s views on issues, said she had been asked the same question “more than once”.

“It’s not only one person, other people are interested too,” she said. “The amount of traffic going up Broad Street is a concern.”

Town Mayor Cllr Phil Owen said that the idea of pedestrianising Broad Street is “a good one” but pointed out that it is designated Trunk Road and warned that it would need to have its status changed by the Welsh Government.

“I think it could be done, and it would be a good thing,” said Cllr Owen.

Cllr David France wants the question put to residents in the consultation document with a simple ‘yes or no’ to: Do you want the town centre to be pedestrianised?

“We would need to have some public consultation on this just to show we have the backing of residents,” he said. “I definitely think it is something worth exploring.”

But Cllr Bailey went on to raise concerns that it could create problems for access to properties and businesses, but agreed to add the question to the consultation to gauge public opinion.