Five projects likely to be suspended by council

A council that is struggling to afford day-to-day spending without borrowing hundreds of millions of pounds from the government has put a number of infrastructure projects on hold.

Shropshire Council said it will only prioritise capital schemes that will generate income or improve the authority's financial position.

Liberal Democrat council leader Heather Kidd has warned against it relying on loans to pay for projects that will put it under further pressure.

The expansion and development of 14 schools across the county are set to remain on the council's plan.

Senior councillors will be asked consider the authority's capital plan for the 2026/27 financial year when they gather on Wednesday.

The school projects, which total more than £24m, are fully funded by external funding, such as government grants and levy charged on new developments.

But here are the five most important projects that have been paused and await re-evaluation by the council

The £28.8m extension to the Shrewsbury Sports Village, including two new pools and multiple fitness suits, has been paused "pending a review of Shropshire's overall leisure requirements".

Planners had hoped to have construction underway at Sundorne in the spring, and the project completed by Christmas 2027.

More than £2.2m was approved in 2024 to spend on developing detailed designs and preparing a planning application.

Last month, the Lib Dem councillor in charge of leisure, James Owen, said the town had "been left behind" when it was compared to leisure facilities in other parts of the county.

The announcement casts further doubt on the future of The Quarry Pool in the town centre, which the council has described as "end of life," but has yet to outline a plan for its future.

Whitchurch has been without its popular civic centre since the unsafe aerated concrete RAAC was found throughout the building.

Landlord Shropshire Council, under its previous Conservative leadership, committed £4m towards rebuilding a new roof, but the new Lib Dem administration has since said that no funding was officially identified.

The authority has said it will redevelop the site when funding is available. But for now, the project is paused while "external and government funding for the work" can be found.

Andy Hall, chair of a Whitchurch Civic Centre working group, said both Shropshire Council and the town council were committed to redeveloping and reopening "this much-needed facility".

A plan to repurpose one of the three Shrewsbury shopping centres bought by Shropshire Council in 2018, is set to be delayed so the authority's wider regeneration strategy for the town centre can be reviewed.

The former Riverside Shopping Centre has already been knocked down, and £18.7m worth of Levelling Up money awarded by the last Conservative government is being spent turning the land into a new park.

Plans also include re-purposing part of the Pride Hill Shopping Centre into a cinema and mixed use site for a hotel, office or residential complex.

The council is proposing to pause development on Pride Hill while a masterplan for the Smithfield Riverside project is finalised.

The former White Horse pub and hotel in Wem is the very first building you see on the High Street if you enter the town centre from Mill Street.

The derelict building, with its worn paintwork and boarded up windows, offers a poor first impression for visitors.

After years of standing empty, Shropshire Council bought the building at auction in 2023 for £92,000, with a view to renovating the building at a potential cost of £850,000.

The authority is expected to pause the scheme unless it can secure external funding to pay for any future restoration works.

Exterior work on the imposing former railway station in Oswestry was completed last year, following 10 months of restoration.

But further work on the interior of the former Cambrian Railways headquarters has yet to get under way. Shropshire Council previously stated that any further work would be subject to grant funding being made available.

The long-term plan is to reconfigure the building for future use.

The county council is proposing the project is "paused pending further due diligence".

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