'People will start avoiding our gridlocked town'

People in Shrewsbury have said they are avoiding parts of the town centre due to congestion caused by temporary traffic lights outside the railway station.

Roadworks restarted on the gyratory on 6 January 2025, but long queues and gridlocked streets have left some confused and frustrated with the council's plans.

One shopper told BBC Radio Shropshire that she would be heading to Oswestry to do her shopping rather than Shrewsbury until the roadworks are finished.

A spokesperson for Shropshire Council said it had put "measures in place to minimise congestion and queue lengths".

The project, which is government funded, will see new street lights, wider pavements and cycle lanes around the station, which the local authority said would enhance the area and improve accessibility.

However, the scheme has resulted in long queues and criticism from drivers since it started in June.

Local businesses are concerned that the roadworks are putting people off coming into the town.

Livi Topple owns the Shrewsbury Coffeehouse, just up the road from the station on Castle Gates.

She said it was "frustrating" for staff trying to get to work, with employees arriving late due to roadworks "pretty much every day".

"It's just a gridlocked town all the time - it doesn't feel great and people will avoid coming in," Ms Topple said.

"It's stressful enough as it is at the minute, making ends meet month to month, so the worry of it being quiet is obviously concerning - it's our livelihoods."

The project is due to be completed by summer 2025, but taxi driver Richard Hall said it had become a "nightmare".

"The roads leading out [of town], every single one of them is blocked," he said.

Mr Hall added that some colleagues were worried it would affect their takings, as every journey was "taking twice as long".

He is also concerned the roadworks are putting people off coming into the county town.

"Once everyone knows that the lights are here and what a nightmare it is, they just won't bother," he said.

Eleri lives in Newtown, and has used Shrewsbury's park-and-ride service to get into the town centre.

But she said the buses were "crawling into town", held up by temporary traffic lights set up around the railway station gyratory.

"I'm not sure I'm going to come here again soon - I sometimes go to Oswestry and go shopping there, so now I think I'll go there," she said.

"It'll be a while before I come back!"

Shrewsbury residents Kevin and Jo Mattinson usually walk into town, and said they were not clear why the roadworks were happening in the first place.

Mrs Mattinson described them as a "nuisance", adding that she was "not really sure what they're actually doing".

Mr Mattinson said the earlier roadworks under the bridge "don't seem to have made much of a difference".

He added that he was "fully supportive of reducing traffic flow" in the town centre, but that these roadworks were not addressing the problem.

A spokesperson for Shropshire Council said they "appreciate that there has inevitably been some disruption to road users", but teams had put "measures in place to minimise congestion and queue lengths", and that traffic light engineers had been on site to check and adjust signal timings.

They added that "the town centre is very much open for business," and that visitors should consider "using an alternative route, using park and ride/other local bus services, or walking/cycling if possible."

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