A MEMBER of the committee aiming to save Whitchurch Civic Centre has admitted if Shropshire Council implements results from a recent survey, it could be a missed opportunity.

Gregory Ebbs, a Whitchurch councillor and prominent member of the Save Whitchurch Centre group was speaking ahead of a public meeting on Wednesday.

The recent survey on the preferred options of the Whitchurch public, with repair and maintain the Raac-ridden building coming out top.

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This, says Gregory, is an option that could be a missed chance to give the town a better Whitchurch Civic Centre.

“In my personal opinion, there are a couple of issues with the survey – I didn’t think it was very good and I don’t think it asked questions it should have,” he said.

“There wasn’t enough space for ‘other ideas’ so it’s a good chance for us to voice some other views in a greater capacity.

“On the day, we will be putting out a ‘visionary plan’ for the Civic just reiterating what was put forward and don’t forget, the survey only accounted for 11 per cent of the population.

“That is a fair amount and was a good response given compared to previous ones, but the meeting is about us pushing our message again.

“If the survey is implemented with those results, it might be a missed opportunity to have a more ‘fit for purpose’ building.

“Giving up an opportunity for improvement is always an opportunity missed, regardless, even if it is functional, you want to improve.

“But nothing has been decided yet and this is where we come in to put that message forward and encourage Shropshire Council to think more creatively about it.”

The meeting will be held in the Market Hall, behind the Civic, from 7.15pm with a similar format as to the large public hearing last January.

It will begin with a slow march from the Bullring to the Market Hall from 6.15pm and Gregory said the aim is to mark the one year since the crisis started.

He said: “One main goal is to remind people and celebrate what’s been achieved over the course of the year and to keep their spirits up.

“A lot of people’s spirits are down because we’ve not many updates apart from the odd newspaper article so it’s a ‘hey, this is what is going on’ and a reminder of why we want to keep the building.

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“We want it to be as really big as the January event.

“It’s also been one year since the Civic closed so it’s a great opportunity for Shropshire Council to mark that by giving us updates about it.

“We’ve put together a report that we will be representing on our own findings about what we think should be done with the property.”