Getting there

Walking to the development is easy from many areas of Oswestry, whether you are going there to work or for leisure. The existing pedestrian islands on Shrewsbury Road will be enhanced by a new Pelican crossing at the main site access and dedicated pathways through the site from Shrewsbury Road will deliver people straight to the door of the offices, restaurants, cinema and shops on the site. As you can also walk to the town centre in around 10 – 15 minutes, the possibilities for working and shopping in the town are endless, with many points of interest along the way.

Cycling offers a popular choice for travel and the site benefits from having a shared footway and cycleway running right past its front door. To make cycling into the development as easy as possible this existing route has been linked to dedicated routes within the site. A new pedestrian / cyclist ‘Toucan’ crossing has been created to ensure cyclists arrive safely. Cycle parking has been designed into the layout of the site to enable people to park their bike near to the place they are visiting.

Buses offer a lifeline in many communities, offering an alternative way to get out and about. The Smithfield development takes this very seriously and has worked hard to ensure that buses visit the site, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Not only is the site served by existing buses such as the 70 and 402 but, after discussions with local bus operators, Liberty Mercian have agreed to fund a FREE Town Centre Shuttle Bus service from the development into the town centre, making that all important link with the bus station and town centre shops and businesses as well. No tickets, no rebates, no messing – what could be easier?!

There are to be three new bus stops, sited at the food store, the cinema and the offices, to make life as convenient as possible for bus passengers and a designated ‘bus gate’ has been designed into the scheme to allow buses to shortcut around the main entrance and reduce journey times. The FREE Town Centre Shuttle Bus will run Monday to Saturday every 15-20 minutes, and every 30 minutes on Sundays, with operational hours to support the development and town centre uses.

Parking at Smithfield will be free for up to 5 hours – this gives plenty of time to shop, eat, go to the cinema and visit the town centre all in one go, reducing the need to make lots of shorter trips or to go to another town altogether. A great deal of thought and effort has gone into helping people get between Smithfield and Oswestry town centre without having to drive, but it is also acknowledged that sometimes travelling by car is necessary or preferable, in which case drivers should find town centre spaces more readily available as a result of extra parking spaces provided at Smithfield.

As some drivers and their passengers need a little extra space around their vehicle this has been designed into the car park also, with plenty of 'blue badge' and 'Parent & Child' spaces sited around the development to make it that little bit easier for people to get right to where they want to go.

Many people these days prefer to use taxis, for a variety of reasons. Smithfield has designed this into the scheme with a dedicated taxi drop off / pick up area at the supermarket – where they will also find an in-store freephone to make that call for the taxi.

The town centre is a busy place and we want to help keep it that way – so we are not just doing plenty to help people get there from Smithfield, but we are also supporting a commuter Park and Ride scheme to free up some of the town centre parking for shoppers who want to just go there. The Livestock Market site will be available for workers to park all day every day (except Wednesday market day) and to use the FREE Town Centre Shuttle Bus to get to the town centre, once a ‘pass’ has been obtained from the development. This will take congestion out of the town centre and make parking easier for town shoppers, with revenue from the parking pass scheme helping to sustain the FREE Town Centre Shuttle Bus for the longer term.

Every effort has been made to reduce the impact of travellers going to and from the development, making links between there and the town centre as easy as possible and ensuring that travel concepts contribute to the vitality and viability of Oswestry. Rather than just looking at how the development itself can benefit from existing transport provision, the project team have looked specifically at how best to help the town benefit from their proposals through:

• Keeping the site access in the same place as it is now and making no changes to how residents on College Way get to their homes.
• Extending the 30mph zone on Shrewsbury Road further east from College Road, to make walking and cycling in the area safer and more pleasant.
• Actively supporting a new, FREE Town Centre Shuttle Bus that supplements the existing bus routes in the town and makes it easy for people to visit both the development and the town centre.
• Encouraging 'sustainable travel' by putting in footways and cycleways direct from Shrewsbury Road to the front doors of the different elements of the development.
• Linking new pedestrian, cyclist and bus infrastructure with existing provision in the area to maximise effectiveness and continuity of services.
• Offering a way to reduce congestion in the town centre by relocating commuter parking to free up existing parking spaces in the town centre for shoppers there.