Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a good Christmas. For me Christmas came as a well-earned break, with very little downtime since the election. Even with a couple of weeks off, I still had 30 meetings over the last month. I’ve worked to deliver tangible improvements for Whittington and West Felton while balancing wider council responsibilities.
For Whittington, I had a meeting about advancing a 20-mph zone outside the school, a critical step towards safer roads for children and families as part of School Streets initiative. During the month, I have chased up road adoption issues in Park Hall for residents with Mark Wootten, Primoris and Severn Trent. I will be discussing things again with Primoris later this week after getting Severn Trent’s perspective last week. I had a meeting with Mark Wootten and Gemma Lawley, who cover highways aspects of planning, during which we discussed adoption issues, potential sequencing changes going forward to improve efficiency, and a consultation on the Manual for Street design code. I am hopeful that the parish projects may move forward soon, as I have been told that the officer’s internal infrastructure group has approved additional Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for place plan projects and greenlit funding for highway projects. Other issues around enforcement of caravans and fly-tipping have come up.
In West Felton, I again had meetings with officers to progress a new streetlight on The Avenue, which has frustrated the Clerk and parish council members for a number of years. I have also assisted the clerk in reviewing the effectiveness of the council’s website and recommended an upgrade to improve usability at their meeting last week. I attended the parish council’s meeting on Saturday about creating a Neighbourhood Plan and creating a steering group. It was well attended, with strong interest in joining the steering group. If you would like to know more, contact me, or another parish councillor / the parish clerk via the parish website.
These local actions sit alongside broader policy work—such as reviewing CIL, suggesting operational changes to officers and scrutiny committees. More meetings on supplementary planning documents, Sustainable Urban Drainage Scheme (SuDS) policy, improving Enforcement, reviewing shop front policy, boundary and other legal issues, like road adoptions. Discussions about improving digital tools at Shropshire Council to make services more efficient and cost-effective.
The emphasis has been on practical, visible outcomes for residents whilst dealing with the financial mess left by the last council. Safer school zones, improved play facilities, securing community assets, and clearer housing standards are all steps that strengthen the quality of life and meet broader needs.
Neighbourhood Planning and wider planning meetings featured strongly. The new draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the newly passed Planning and Infrastructure Bill, and the new Local Plan setting framework have been much discussed. Particularly, the way they will shape development in Shropshire. Many contradictions have become apparent, and Shropshire Council is seeking clarification. For example, around the timing of the spatial strategy (where development happens). I also attended Baschurch Parish Council meeting and spoke on planning issues for nearly 2 hours. Acton Burnell is my next parish council meeting this week. With Shawbury to follow soon.
Flooding, potholes and winter weather issues have been prominent this month. I have a meeting next week to discuss strengthening SuDS policy to better design out flooding issues at source. I missed National Pothole Day, but I will be updating and reporting more of those in the coming days. Approx 1,000 new reported potholes from the cold snap so far.
Critical structural issues with the last Conservative budget are still haunting Shropshire Council: massive, undeliverable, unplanned savings whilst living beyond its means by £20m a year for years, freezing council tax for years and failing to cover inflation, and year upon year of ignoring audit concerns, to name a few. The compound effect of which has been disastrous for the council’s finances. Instead of addressing the problem at the outset, the last administration repeatedly kicked the problem down the road and depleted all of the council’s reserves.
Shockingly bad Government Settlement
The recent government’s spending settlement was very disappointing and made matters far worse. As you may have seen in the press. Telford and Wrekin were given a large rise while Shropshire a large cut. Despite Telford being a smaller urban council. This has been a hot topic for discussion in a number of meetings. The Government has withdrawn the weighting applied to support the delivery of rural services – Social Care is the only part insulated from this removal. Instead, the Government is moving more money to urban councils. Telford, in contrast, is having a massive increase in its government funding. Something the government had previously pledged they wouldn’t do. Shropshire Council has responded to the government funding consultation in the strongest possible terms. The Cabinet will be discussing that as part of the Financial Strategy and Capital Strategy in detail on Wednesday.
Most urban areas get 41% more funding per head than rural areas like Shropshire.
