Taking the opportunity to trial pedestrianisation during the pandemic – building public support and an evidence base for permanent change
Tactical Pedestrianisation
Shrewsbury, England
£20k
Shrewsbury Business Improvement District, Shrewsbury Town Council, Shropshire Council
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
2021 to date
Town (pop. 76,782)
Economy
Mixed
Deprioritisation of vehicles
As its county town, Shrewsbury is a key economic centre for the largely rural county of Shropshire. Historically, placemaking and economic development activities in the town were led by Shropshire Council.
In 2018, the Council began working with Shrewsbury Town Council and Shrewsbury Business Improvement District (BID) to co-develop the ‘Shrewsbury Big Town Plan’ – a new collaborative way of working with a holistic vision for developing the town up to 2036. This Big Town Plan Partnership then co-authored a ‘Masterplan Vision’ in 2020. Although the town’s economy has remained largely buoyant, the partners realise that it will increasingly be affected by the wider social trends affecting high streets. They want to take proactive steps to futureproof the town centre and keep it thriving.
During the pandemic, the partnership quickly mobilised a COVID-19 Task Force, which decided to close key town centre streets to traffic in order to facilitate government mandated social distancing. These closures also provided the opportunity to trial the Big Town Plan’s vision for a new approach to movement in the town centre. Evidence from this trial would inform plans for longer-term, permanent changes.
During an initial three-month trial in summer 2020, High Street, The Square and Shoplatch, Shrewsbury’s busiest pedestrian streets, were closed to traffic every day from 10am to 4pm, using just a temporary traffic regulation order, moveable planters and signage.
Feedback from the public and local businesses (collected via Commonplace) showed widespread support for continuing the closures even after social distancing restrictions were lifted – as a café culture had begun to flourish, with its outdoor seating, music and public art bringing a new vibrancy to the town.
During a second trial period, restrictions were tweaked based on local feedback. For example, five additional disabled parking bays were provided in neighbouring streets, and access created to the loading bay outside The Lion Hotel on Wyle Cop. To enable public transport to access the town centre on weekdays, the planters were removed and the restriction relied on self-enforcement with signage and a traffic camera. When numerous car drivers used this as an opportunity to flout the restrictions and drive in to the closed streets, it became clear it was necessary to keep using the moveable planters as a physical barrier.
From November 2021, Shropshire Council decided that Shrewsbury’s trial road closures would continue but would only apply on weekends. In early 2023, they made these closures semi-permanent. For the time being, while the partnership progresses plans for long-term changes to the town centre’s road network, Shrewsbury’s ‘rangers’ move the planters at the start and end of each closure period. During these times, through traffic is able to circumvent the town centre using the ring road. However, town centre traffic continues to be displaced to Town Walls, a narrow, historic street, a situation which it is widely agreed needs to be addressed as part of any permanent change.
The Shrewsbury BID facilitates, often in conjunction with a range of partners such as the local tourism association and police, a range of other placemaking initiatives which also help to make Shrewsbury town centre safer, more engaging and more pleasant for people walking and wheeling around it. For example:
Town ‘rangers’ patrol during the daytime and weekend evenings to discourage anti-social behaviour and crime.
Volunteer town ‘ambassadors’ provide information to visitors at key arrival points on weekends.
The high street is dressed with bunting and lamp post flags, displays are put in empty shop windows, and mini murals have been painted to create a town trail.
Events are held, such as an Easter egg trail, jubilee weekend, live music, and screenings of major cultural and sporting events.
A paper-based town map is made widely available and on-street totems have been put in.
Aside from the predominantly positive feedback from the community received as part of on-going consultation throughout the trial, there is clear evidence that Shrewsbury’s timed pedestrianisation has helped to boost town centre business. Data analysts Beauclair were commissioned by Shrewsbury BID to compare weekly sales data from before the pandemic with the data from 2022 to 2023, for both the pedestrianised and non-pedestrianised areas of the town.
As a whole, sales in the town rose on average by 14%. However, growth in the pedestrianised areas was 25 percentage points higher than in the non-pedestrianised areas (37% compared to 12%). The most significant growth in the pedestrianised areas was in the ‘grocery’, ‘general retail’ and ‘food and drink’ sectors (which respectively grew 30%, 45% and 66% more than in non-pedestrianised areas). The high growth of the latter suggests that the road closures have helped to create a more experiential high street which encourages people to spend more time and money relaxing in the space.
Compared to the non-pedestrianised areas, sales growth in the pedestrianised areas has been significantly higher among customers from outside the town. (Growth from ‘neighbours’ was 40% higher, from ‘region’ was 44% higher and from ‘rest of GB’ was 32% higher; compared to ’15-minute towns’ and ‘doughnuts’ being 7% and 20% higher respectively.) This highlights the importance of ensuring that pedestrianised areas are part of a legible, wider walking network which connects key arrival points for out-of-town visitors, such as train stations, bus interchanges and car parks.
The Big Town Plan Partnership is now consulting the local community on a ‘Movement and Public Space Strategy’, which will be a blueprint for a 10-year plan to evolve the town’s transport network. With the success of the timed road closures, this is likely to advocate for the permanent pedestrianisation of a large part of the town centre, as well as for complementary measures to remove through traffic and create a bus corridor through the town centre, which will improve both accessibility and journey times.
The positive impact of the trial road closures has also helped to galvanise support for the partnership’s wider plans for the town, such as redeveloping the riverside area to create a link between the town centre and the River Severn using high quality public realm and green space.
Focusing on the benefits for the hospitality sector (in creating a more experiential high street), and on the experimental nature of the trial, was key to generating initial support for road closures from the community.
Using signs, planters and traffic regulation orders was an agile and cost-effective approach to pedestrianisation.