Population: 70,500

Contact:
Planning Services
Tel: 01743 252552
Shropshire County Council
Shirehall, Abbey Foregate
Shrewsbury SY2 6ND
http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/index.nsf

Head of Special Projects: Rob Surl

Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council
http://www.shrewsbury.gov.uk/public/home/default.asp

Urban design in a historic town centre

Rob Surl, as Head of Transportation, was instrumental in trying to adopt a more sensitive approach to urban design, seeking to tackle some of the visual problems caused in historic downs by the clutter of modern road signage and inappropriate paving materials. Shropshire County Council adopted a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together transport planners, highway and traffic engineers, planning and conservation officers and urban designers to work on various projects.

The county council has also worked with various streetscape designers such as Halcrow, Nick De Jong Associates and Colin Davis Aassociates http://www.streetdesign.info/ who have specialised in developing approaches more sympathetic to the needs of historic towns.

The Council’s budgeting strategy was also instrumental in ensuring resources were made available for pedestrians and cyclists. The Local Transport Plan budget used a matrix approach to distribute available capital funding between different types of road user, and between the County town, the smaller market towns and the rural areas, which helped give rise to a range of streetscape and transport schemes being implemented in Shrewsbury and other towns across Shropshire.

Work carried out in Shrewsbury as part of the Historic Core Zones project is cited as good practice by English Heritage and is one of a series of case studies in a guide,
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/West-Midlands-Streets-Part3.pdf
along with others in Kensington, Suffolk and Lincoln.

The Shrewsbury Historic Core Zone project

Shrewsbury High Street was improved in two phases in 1996 and 1997. Instead of banning cars from the congested High Street, the Council decided to implement a design scheme that would make it more user friendly to pedestrians and cyclists.

One of the main aims was to encourage drivers to slow down and give way to pedestrians. If driving speed was reduced to around 15mph, then there would be time for eye contact to be established between drivers and other road users.

The main way this was carried out was through a narrowing of the carriageway, and the introduction of closely spaced informal “courtesy crossings” (at a typical spacing of 30 metres). The aim of these was to encourage drivers to slow down and give way to pedestrians. Speeds of 15 mph would give ample time for eye contact between drivers and pedestrians.

Visually, the whole street was improved by making it free of yellow lines (as it is a restricted parking zone). The new road design also cut out the need for bollards, beleisha beacons and other intrusive signs.

Work in phases one and two (Shrewsbury High Street Route)

The carriageway was reduced to a minimum width of 3.5 metres and footways were widened accordingly.

• A series of twenty 'courtesy crossings' were constructed along the High Street. These were defined as crossing places by using smooth-faced York stone setts.
• Parking and loading bays were indicated by black basalt setts, a material found elsewhere in the town.
• The Department for Transport sanctioned a reduced size of loading restriction signs which are fixed to robust timber bollards at the edge of the pavement. The posts also helped define the crossing points.
• The scheme has resulted in a 34% reduction in traffic volume, a 22% reduction in traffic speed and a reduction in accidents.

Problems identified

• Heavy traffic proved too much for the granite setts forming the carriageway. The bitumen grout did not adhere fully, and the cement mortar bed was washed out. In 2000, the whole carriageway was reconstructed. The original setts (100 by 200 by 150 mm) were cut in half, and re-laid in a high strength grout over a full depth asphalt road base. To date, this appears to have been effective.
• Yorkshire coursing on the edge of the pavements was not tough enough for the demands put on it. These were replaced by granite.

Phase three

Design detail

The policy is to work as slowly as the job demands to ensure quality. As little as seven metres a day may be laid. But this ensures that problems are ironed out at the onset.

In phase three of the town centre works (ongoing), mortar joints have been used for the pavers, rather than butting them up. This makes a better seal.