Welshpool Town Council held a meeting with over 40 businesses in response to recent shop closures in the town.

Welshpool Mayor, Cllr Allison Davies, met with a number of business owners in the Royal Oak to host a forum discussing the closures and the town council’s plan to combat the issue.

Both savers and Barclays recently announced the closure of their Welshpool branches, joining Sainsbury’s, WH Smith’s and HSBC as businesses who have left Welshpool in the past 18 months.

In response to the rise in closures, Welshpool Town Council welcomed 40 local businesses to The Royal oak to present their plans and hear from business owners on the issues they are currently facing.

Cllr Davies said: “We held an event about a month ago, just after I was elected as mayor, for the organisations and various people in thew town.

“But I specifically wanted to hold an event that was geared towards businesses, not just the businesses in the town centre, but all the businesses in the wards.

“We felt that it was important to update them on what we’ve been doing, and give them an opportunity to voice their opinions, offer suggestions and get to know one another, and bounce ideas off each other.

“If we are going to benefit from the funding that is available and if we are going to make a success of the Transforming Towns project, then we need to work together and we need to work really hard.”

Some of the issues raised by business owners included high rents, the inefficient planning process, and a lack of public facilities such as parking and toilets.

The forum received positive feedback from the businesses who were invited to participate.

Thomas Corbet, manager of Tanners Wines, said: “I think it’s fantastic that something like this is being launched.

“I know there’s obviously some disappointment at the moment with the shops that are leaving us but I think there’s been some real positive comments tonight about how we can work well together.

“We have got such great strengths of individual businesses and it’s great to see some real positive conversations about how we can help each other out.

“it doesn’t have to be difficult times ahead.”