OSWESTRY looks set to be in the running for a slice of a £675 million high street regeneration fund.

Shropshire Council Cabinet is being asked to approve Oswestry and Shrewsbury as first round bidders for a share of the government's Future High Street Fund.

If approved, expressions of interest will be put formulated for submission to the fund by the March 22 deadline.

The authority invited town and parish councils to submit proposals and received responses from Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch.

A panel – including Mark Barrow, Shropshire Council's executive director of place, Marches Local Enterprise Partnership director, Gill Hamer, and Paul Bennett, chairman of Shropshire Business Board – assessed the proposals.

In a report to the Cabinet, Mr Barrow said: " The panel assessed the Oswestry proposal and recommends that this goes forward to the first round. The panel concluded that this was a well written proposal which gave an authentic picture of Oswestry.

"However, it will be important to expand the detail to capture and enable a focus on a bigger vision for the town. There is some good creative thinking on using new environmental technology in the town."

Mr Barrow also noted that proposals to the panel had to outline potential match funding.

He added: "In Oswestry, Shropshire Council has provisionally secured up to £9.3m of Housing Infrastructure Fund to support and enable the development and delivery of housing in Oswestry.

"There is an opportunity now to explore collaboration with the BID and town council regarding match funding opportunities aligning resources across the the organisations as well as exploring further funding opportunities and resources."

Councillors have previously noted that some of the council's £4million windfall could be used to support the bid.

Whitchurch was recommended for consideration for the second round of funding in 2020.

Business cases for the first round will be submitted by late 2019.

Shropshire Council Cabinet will review the recommendations on February 27.