More priority will be given to pedestrians under plans to regenerate the centre of one of the county’s key market towns.

The proposals for Oswestry could see pavements widened, road layouts changed and a car park transformed into an outdoor dining area.

Councillors and business leaders hope the changes will help drive up footfall and complement other projects already underway to re-purpose vacant buildings and spruce up shop fronts.

Shropshire Council deputy leader Steve Charmley said the next few years would be a “really exciting time” for Oswestry, with a ‘masterplan’ for the town expected to be published later this year.

Councillor Charmley, who sits on the Future Oswestry Group (FOG) alongside town council and Business Improvement District (BID) representatives, said the group was keen to investigate how highways changes could be made to make the town centre more welcoming to shoppers and visitors.

One plan being put forward is to shut off Festival Square Car Park to vehicles, at least part-time, to allow the surrounding businesses to make use of the area for outdoor seating.

Cllr Charmley said it was an ideal location to embrace the “café culture” that has surged in popularity during the pandemic, but he added that this would need to be carefully weighed up against the loss of income the council would incur from the closure of the busy car park.

He said: “You could just imagine a summer’s day, seeing it covered in tables and being really popular.

“There is a cocktail bar, noodle bar, cafés all around that could make use of it. Argos is closing across the road, that could become an eatery.

“It could put a new heart into this part of Oswestry and be a really welcoming area.”

Cllr Charmley said the idea had been mooted in the past, with designs even being drawn up at one stage, but it had “never come to fruition”.

Other proposals include alterations to the one-way system to allow roads to be narrowed and pavements widened, taking vehicles away from the Bailey Head and “stopping the rat running” up Bailey Street.

A funding boost of more than £1.8 million has been secured for town centre improvements through Historic England’s High Street Heritage Action Zones (HSHAZ) scheme, and Shropshire Council has now submitted a bid for even more cash from the government’s newly-launched Levelling Up Fund.

The HSHAZ scheme includes grants being made available to town centre business owners to improve their shop frontages, and Cllr Charmley said several of these were in the process of being signed off.

He added that a long boarded-up building in Church Street was expected to reopen in the near future, and other businesses in the town had plans to move into bigger, currently vacant, premises.

The HSHAZ funds will also support a ‘flagship’ project to re-purpose a derelict town centre building into a business support hub.

Cllr Charmley said this could be tied in with leisure and civic uses, with the potential to co-locate council services in the same building.

He said: “We are looking at the former B-Wise and Regal buildings. We have done feasibility on those to see what the cost to bring them up to scratch would be.

“I think all the facilities for a cinema are still in there, so maybe we could have a one-screen cinema in the downstairs, and move the council offices out of Castle View into top floor.”

Outside the town centre, FOG has also set out ambitions to bring the station building back into use and Cllr Charmley said a “definitive plan” for the vacant former Morrison’s store would be set out by Shropshire Council, which now owns the building, by the end of the year.

The Levelling Up Fund money would also go towards a new skate park at Mile End.

Cllr Charmley added: “If we get the Levelling Up Fund that would be good for the town, it would enable us to make even more improvements.

“The next few years are going to be really exciting.”