The second planning application for Shropshire Council’s Smithfield Riverside regeneration project in Shrewsbury has been submitted.

Led by the council and its development manager, RivingtonHark, Smithfield Riverside is the ambitious regeneration project set to transform the area between the River Severn, the Darwin Centre and Roushill in Shrewsbury town centre.

The first stage of the project – a landmark new public park alongside Roushill – was approved earlier this year. Funded by almost £19 million of Levelling Up money from UK Government, demolition of the Riverside shopping centre and the former Riverside medical practice is now well underway, with construction of the park scheduled to begin in early 2025.

The second planning application is an ‘outline’ application, which seeks to secure the principle of development for three key plots located between Smithfield Road, Raven Meadows and the new park on Roushill.

While the building proposals remain illustrative at this stage, the application will establish the key design, scale and massing, and use parameters that will guide the successful future regeneration of the site.

The application was informed by a second round of public consultation, which saw around 3,000 people engage online, 300 in-person engagements and over 200 people leave direct feedback.

In response to the feedback received, the latest proposals offer greater flexibility for the three plots, allowing for a complementary mix of residential, office and hotel uses. Additionally, the plans introduce an enhanced public realm offer to better connect the plots and integrate them more effectively with the surrounding area.

To ensure the development respects the scale and character of Shrewsbury’s historic skyline, the maximum building height for the plots have also been reduced by one storey compared with previous iterations of the plans.

The second Smithfield Riverside planning application 24/04476/EIA is now available on the council’s online planning register and a decision is due to be made at a Local Planning Authority committee meeting in March 2025.