As 2025 draws to a close, I thought it would be worth running through the year and touching on the year ahead.
Happy New Year. I hope everyone has a great 2026!
May local election success
The year started in earnest with the run-in to May’s local elections. Culminating in me winning the Whittington Division election for Shropshire Council, and the Lib Dems taking control of Shropshire Council after 16 years of Conservative ruin.
Following the election, my peers elected me to the Cabinet as the Portfolio Holder for Planning. The planning portfolio is a critical role following the withdrawal of the last council’s Local Plan after inspectors found it unsound in 2024. This left the council without a 5-year land supply, brutally exposing Shropshire to unplanned development. A perfect storm when set against the Government’s eye-watering mandatory housing target. In December 2024, the Government announced a new target of 2,025 houses a year – an 86% uplift. Arguably undeliverable, and they haven’t addressed the infrastructure or the jobs around that.
Without a 5-year land supply and a sound local plan, developers are in the box seat with policy tilted towards sustainable development as defined by national policy. My job is to close the policy vacuum as quickly as possible and develop a robust plan that meets Shropshire’s long-term needs.
Strategic Leadership & Policy Direction
- Formal withdrawal of the Local Plan and establishment of the Local Plan Member Group (LPMG) with 11 cross-party members.
- Commenced evidence gathering for a new plan, which included a ‘Call for sites’.
- Advanced Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) and interim guidance, including Street Design Guide and Place Universal Offer. These will shore up existing policy to keep that as up to date as possible, as the existing SamDev plan loses weight.
- Launched Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) consultation and promoted via public events.
- Supported Bayston Hill and Shifnal neighbourhood planning;
- Explored Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) community boards rather than the officer-led infrastructure group, which has no member oversight.
- Reviewed Article 4 directions and conservation areas in several key parts of the county. Some places are no longer enforceable and need review. Also engaged with councils and members of the public about the suitability of Article 4 directions to control HMOs. Article 4 Directions aren’t the correct tool.
- Following the last round of voluntary redundancies, there was no strategic leadership for the old place directorate. I have been fulfilling that role since the election. Interviews have been taking place in recent weeks to replace those missing service directors with a new director of place shaping.
- The Conservatives made indiscriminate cuts to officers across the planning service despite the service generating revenue for the council. I have sought to boost resources and increase the council’s income, lobbying the chief executive and leadership board hard to fix that. Without it, the council is increasingly exposed to losing costly appeals and unplanned revenue costs we can’t afford.
Financial Stewardship & Capacity
- Championed developer-funded staffing via CIL Admin pot to boost planning throughput.
- Integrated planning actions into the corporate financial recovery and Improvement Plan.
- Participated in Cabinet and Leadership Board sessions on budget emergency and governance.
- Discovered the council had no financial controls for any external contracts.
- Introduced a new pothole repair crew and are shifting the operating model for highway repairs to improve performance and accountability.
- Suspended the extortionate NWRR as unaffordable – £220m for 4 miles of single carriageway road. Appealed to the government to write off the £39m already spent by the last council, as repaying that was also unaffordable.
- Aligned planning and delivery with risk management. Improving planning resources limits exposure to unplanned costs and generates more income for the council.
- Discovered that the last Conservative Council had essentially been living beyond its means by circa £20m per year. Using up its reserves (savings) and borrowing money to balance the books.
- Discovered that the Violia Waste Contract is ripping off Shropshire every year. With no affordable option to exit the contract early for many years, this isn’t likely to change anytime soon. The actual work carried out by Violia is good, and the staff work hard. We are working hard to get better value from the contract.
- Discovered that previously identified savings were undeliverable with no plan to deliver them. Savings targets had been missed year after year.
- Brought in the Local Government Association (LGA) to carry out a Corporate Peer Review.
- Following the LGA Peer Review, the Cabinet agreed to establish an independent Improvement Board.
- Applied for Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from the Government following a deep dive into the budget. The EFS application is to get through the Conservatives’ budget black hole and provide enough money to allow the council to transform into a new way of working and achieve long-term financial stability.
- The external audit revealed the last administration’s failure to address several years of adverse audit findings and the lack of financial controls.
Delivery & Enforcement
- Oversaw major applications, pre-app throughput, s106 agreements, and appeals.
- Addressed enforcement and tree services capacity risks; flagged structural fixes needed. Cornwall council has 19.5 planning enforcement officers – Shropshire has 3. Shropshire has 1.5 tree officers covering all TPOs, planning applications, enforcement and tree condition surveys.
- Explored the introduction of Fixed Penalty Notices for enforcement.
- Coordinated Section 38 road adoptions and linked planning decisions to highways delivery. Discovered a 10-year backlog of road adoptions impacting as many as 3,000 homes – my estimate. Working with officers on a plan to tackle that backlog.
- Lobbied for a review of the CIL charging schedule, which hadn’t been reviewed since 2012. The same rates apply across Shropshire, a large county with diverse needs. CIL needs to be better targeted to meet local needs when it is charged and when the money is spent on infrastructure.
- Worked with multiple councils and local members on protecting heritage assets and giving new life to empty heritage buildings.
Community Engagement
- Maintained active casework on broadband, roadworks, graffiti, heritage, and park-and-ride issues.
- Worked with SALC on parish guidance for material considerations; attended high-attendance public meetings.
- Handled local requests such as verge parking referrals and boundary disputes.
- Pressed for better reporting of CIL outcomes back to the communities impacted by development. For years, this hasn’t happened at all.
- Asked for better communication around enforcement outcomes so that people can better perceive that enforcement does actually happen.
Cross-Portfolio Work
- Regular contributions to Cabinet and Executive Group sessions on governance and workforce planning.
- Engaged with the Local Government Association (LGA) mentor programme and external seminars on rural planning and affordable housing.
- Met with Historic England, Create Streets, MPs, developers, businesses and landowners to align policy with delivery and need.
- Discussed cross-over issues on housing, economic development, transport, health and education with other portfolio holders to ensure their needs are planned for at the outset.
Notable Outcomes
- LNRS consultation live and promoted with public-facing activities.
- SPDs and committee process improvements to reduce surprises and standardise decision-making.
- CIL policy sharpened: community-level boards concept and admin-pot focus to uplift capacity.
- Public engagement: strong feedback on transparency and professionalism at events.
- Operational vigilance: persistent challenge on enforcement and tree services capacity.
Impact Summary
- Strengthened planning committee decision-making via SPDs and interim guidance.
- Drove resourcing solutions from developer contributions to increase throughput and income.
- Improved community trust through visible engagement and parish guidance.
- Aligned planning actions with the corporate Improvement Plan and financial recovery context.
Looking Ahead to Q1 2026
- Finalise and consult on new SPDs and Street Design Guides.
- Bring proposals for CIL Community Boards to members for consideration. CIL Local isn’t working effectively, and we want to address that with more local involvement.
- Progress business case for short-term staffing and lock-in process improvements to improve income.
- Formally commence the new local plan setting process. This is a new ‘rapid’ process, but it will still take 30 months to complete. The Government has just established the plan-making process and introduced a 4-month notice of intention to commence. This isn’t helpful when we are poised to start. The process is now in effect for 34 months, with a scheduled completion in 2029.
- Consolidate Article 4 and conservation reviews. If we don’t address this to keep them tight, then Article 4 directions become less enforceable and less effective.
- Continue LNRS engagement and feed outcomes into allocations.
- Meet with officers to improve Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) policy to reduce run-off and help prevent costly flooding.
- Continued meetings with Town and Parish Councils across Shropshire about planning matters and adoption of Neighbourhood Plans. Baschurch and Condover are coming up next.
- I am optimistic that we can see action on the massive backlog of road adoptions.
- I am also optimistic that we will see many CIL-funded infrastructure schemes come forward that have been unnecessarily held up.
- Review of the CIL Charging Schedule to make it more responsive to needs
Locally in Whittington Division in 2026
- Burmah Road footpath should be coming forward soon, if what I am told is correct, but I will continue to push for the path to be built as promised since the MOD originally gave up the land.
- Again, if other indications of CIL projects unlocking are correct, I anticipate movement on a number of local projects to provide infrastructure across the division.
- A frustrating conclusion to efforts to support Oswestry Boys and Girls FC in expanding their facilities, but I will continue to work with them to achieve a positive outcome.
- Continuing to press for progress on parish projects at Whittington PC and West Felton PC.
