A COUNCILLOR has suggested the idea of changing the colours of shopfronts to tidy up the Ellesmere’s appearance.

Councillor Geoff Elner discussed the idea at a recent town council meeting where he brought up the possibility of businesses coming together to discuss new colours for their shopfronts to better fit with the town’s conservation area status.

Chairman of planning, Cllr Elner, said: “Members of public and Chamber of Trade mentioned it to me. We wanted to look at what it means being in a conservation area.

“Apparently, shops should not be out of keeping with the buildings or distract from their original use. Across town, we have purple, green, yellow and blue shopfronts – it’s a bit of a mix and match.

“The shops aren’t in breach of the conservation area rules, but it would be nice if they were able to get together and decide on colours which better fit the area. It’s all down to the shop owners and the Chamber of Trade.”

Cllr Elner gave credit to the community feel in the town and said should the idea be of interest to shop owners in the area, the community may want to help in raising money to allow the plan to go forward.

He added: “We have a lovely community sense here, maybe we could all come together to raise money for it to be done if the shops wished to do so.”

“We came together to sort out the recent parking issue, so it would be nice to do the same thing again.”

The Chamber of Commerce has been contacted for comment.