Work starts on £250m Southwater site

TELFORD & Wrekin Council’s plans to create a vibrant new heart for the town centre took a big step forward yesterday when work started on the £250m Southwater development.

The work will take 18 months to complete but will ultimately result in the building of an 11 screen cinema, a string of restaurants and bars and a hotel.

Initial steps will see hoardings go up around the relevant sites with ground works beginning in November.

The aim is to create a vibrant night-time economy in Telford town centre and the beginning of work is the latest major step in a scheme that has taken ten years to develop.

Telford & Wrekin Council leader Kuldip Sahota said: “The plans for Southwater have evolved over time but I am delighted that we are now in a position where we will see tangible evidence of what we have been promising start to rise up before people’s eyes.

“We’ve had to be patient. It took a full year for services to be installed in the ground so that all the planned buildings would be able to function properly but now we can start building it is a very exciting time.”

The development includes an 11 screen cinema to be operated by Cineworld, restaurants and bars including Zizzi’s, Nando’s, Chimichanga’s, Wagamama, Harvester, Bella Italia and Pizza Express and a hotel operated by Premier Inn.

The leisure element of the development is being led by Citygrove Developments and the contractor which will build the individual units is Thomas Vale Construction.

Morgan Sindall is understood to have won the bid race for the library building which will act as a centrepiece of the scheme.