Why Redevelop the Smithfield site?

The Cattle Market
In 1967 the Livestock Market moved from the site where the Central Car Park is today, to its current location on Shrewsbury Road.  The entire 36 acre site is owned by Oswestry Town Council and is leased to Oswestry Cattle Auctions.  The Market plays an important role for local livestock farmers on both sides of the border and plays an integral part in giving Oswestry its market town feel.

Since 1967 the pattern of livestock farming has changed, and so have the operational requirements of livestock markets.  The Oswestry Market will continue but it is now able to operate from a smaller site.  To run a modern market that meets the requirements of customers, farmers and the high standards of animal welfare and disease prevention, the Auctioneers have designed a new market can operate more efficiently from 20 acres of the current site.  This leaves a balance of 16 acres on the portion of the site closest to the town centre which the Auctioneers do not need.

The development process
The Town Council and the Auctioneers have agreed, subject to the granting of a planning consent, changes to their lease arrangements that allows for the redevelopment of the site’s remaining 16 acres.

In 2006 Oswestry Town Council and Oswestry Livestock Auctioneers agreed to investigate the redevelopment opportunity for a reorganisation of the Market site.  Twelve development companies were initially approached with the result that six bids were submitted and, in October 2007, after an exhaustive interview and selection process, locally based development company Liberty Mercian Ltd, was selected as the Preferred Development Partner.

What kind of development?
The Town Council want to see a high quality scheme come forward that meets the needs of the town.  Liberty Mercian Ltd have paid close attention to the findings of a study commissioned by the Borough Council and conducted by Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners, which identified that there was an opportunity to develop a new supermarket, additional non-food retailing and leisure provision that would serve both Oswestry and its neighbouring village communities.  Liberty Mercian Ltd’s own consultant team has, through additional research and professional analysis of shopping patterns and the existing retail and leisure facilities in the town, confirmed this development requirement.

The redevelopment of this important gateway site into the town brings forward those developments that will, in planning terms, make Oswestry a more sustainable and self-sufficient town as it will provide elements of retail and leisure for which local people are currently travelling to competing towns.

What kind of application?
The application is submitted in the names of Liberty Mercian Ltd and Oswestry Cattle Auctions.  As the landowner is Oswestry Town Council, no Town Councillor will be a member of the Planning Committee that will determine the application.

The application is at this stage an outline planning application. An outline application establishes the proposed entry and exit points of a development, the maximum heights of the buildings and the permitted scale of each element of the proposal i.e. the maximum square footage for food retail, non food retail etc.  An outline application does not deal with design, materials or landscaping.

Should the outline proposal receive a planning permission from the Borough Council, the development partners will then submit a Reserved Matters planning application that will provide the detail of landscaping and design for both the new Market operations and the mixed-use element of the proposal.