Maintenance of Planted Areas

Shrewsbury Town Council’s Recreational and Formal Space Team maintain many recreation grounds and sports pitches in the town, including facilities for private clubs and schools. Having sports facilities crossing over various seasons can prove difficult particularly in a climate where the seasons merge and the start and end of sporting fixtures don’t necessarily align.

All Town Council recreation grounds and open spaces are regularly litter picked, especially before mowing. There is a need to ensure the grass is cut short enough to enable dog fouling to be easily spotted.

The purchase of a Turf Tank Marker to mark out the 64 sports pitches will reduce staff time by 46% giving an opportunity for staff to be diverted onto other tasks. Pitches are plotted on a tablet and the marker uses GPS to ensure accuracy. The marker has also been used to mark out designs on the grass in the Quarry.

Town Council staff have refurbished and replanted the town centre planters. The finished planters are cared for at the Nursery before being relocated within the town centre. A selection of small trees, and bee-friendly perennials and shrubs have been chosen, some of these were produced at the nursery from cuttings or seed.

Careful consideration is taken as to where planters are located to ensure continued disabled access, but also using the structures as hostile vehicle mitigation in the public spaces. Town Council staff are working in partnership with Shropshire Council to deliver new planters in the Chester Street area near to the station.

These are funded from the levelling up fund.

Horticultural staff have been working with Principal Architect Rivington Hark on the development of the new park in the former Riverside Shopping Centre area of the town. Having attracted £19m of Government Levelling Up funding, this has enabled the former shopping centre to be demolished, a new podium to be built to enable future developments and the creation of a new park. The area will be hard landscaped and handed over to the Town Council to undertake soft landscaping to a design which will mitigate against flooding but that adds colour and interest all year round.