FUNDING worth £500,000 has been earmarked to improve a town street.

Castle Street in Llangollen town centre is to undergo a refurb after Denbighshire Council granted the project from a pot of more than £1 million handed down by the Welsh Government.

At a Denbighshire Council cabinet meeting on Tuesday members were asked to agree how to use its allocation of £1,204,380 from the £30 million Highways Refurbishment Grant announced by Welsh Government and allocated to councils.

Four projects were put to the cabinet and Llangollen’s Castle Street was awarded £500,000 of the total.

This supports the work of the joint working group set up by Llangollen’s two county Councillors Graham Timms and Melvyn Mile and Llangollen’s chamber of trade and town council.

The working group, which has been meeting since October last year, has been looking for ways to solve parking and traffic flow, the two biggest problems in Llangollen’s Town centre.

Cllr Timms said: “We’re delighted that this scheme has been given such a huge boost. The £500,000 will be used to attract other major funders to contribute to a major overhaul of the town centre, expected to cost over £2 million.

“The cabinet has recognised the determination of the working group to tackle the problems of the town and to make the environment on Castle Street more suited to its place at the heart of the Dee Valley and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

“A consultation will take place during the latter part of June where locals, businesses and visitors will be given the chance to share their opinions and ideas on how our town can work better for everyone.”

Llangollen’s town and county councillors are working out solutions to the major traffic and parking problems during the busy tourist season. They have joined forces with the local Chamber of Trade and received funding from Cadwyn Clwyd - through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government - for a major study to explore ideas and draw up plans for the town centre.

Urban design and traffic planning group Arcadis Consulting (UK) have been awarded the contract to work with the group and will be carrying out their study over the next few weeks.

They will be consulting with a wide range of organisations and individuals in the town to ensure their designs are influenced by residents and businesses as well as other visitors to the town.

They will carry out traffic surveys and pedestrian counts to help them to create new solutions to solve Llangollen’s problems. Arcadis planners have been asked to consider both traditional and innovative solutions, including the “shared space” ideas used in Chester city centre that encourages traffic and pedestrians to have equal priority.

The main aim is to make the town more pedestrian friendly as well as getting the traffic moving more smoothly through the centre.

They have been asked to consider wide ranging options including a mini-roundabout, removing traffic lights and investigate possible oneway systems to ease congestion.

Cllrs Mile and Timms are both enthusiastic about the project and actively encouraging everyone to engage with the planners.

“There will be a number of events during May and June where residents and business owners will be able to contribute their ideas before a plan is drawn up” said Cllr Mile.

“The final plans will only meet our needs if we all make a contribution to the initial discussions”. Cllr Timms added: “There have been many plans to improve the town over the years with varying degrees of success.

Maybe now it’s time to look at some more innovative and radical measures”.

The report from the consultants is expected to be published in September and meanwhile the group of councillors and the Chamber of Trade are working on a range of funding solutions to enable the plans to become reality.