Last October, Shropshire Housing Group (SHG) felled a healthy sycamore tree on the green space between Sidney Road and Charlton Rise. A second tree was saved after hurried negotiations. Now SHG has submitted plans to cut down the second tree and build seven bungalows on the site.
I’m not one for celebrating birthdays. My own would pass me by if it did not pop up on Facebook. But I think it worth recording that my emailed Ludlow Newsletters today are three years old. My best estimate is that they are read by around 1,000 people. That’s okay for a small town newsletter written by a small town councillor.
Despite the imminent election, which usually leads to a halt on policy statements,[1] Shropshire Council yesterday issued a draft leisure strategy. There is good news for Ludlow and for Bishop’s Castle, whose leisure centres will continue to be supported by Shropshire Council, along with those in Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Bridgnorth and Market Drayton.
Last week, I said the two houses proposed on Friars Walk will be almost impossible to build without considerable disruption to the community. South Planning Committee documents released on Thurday show that Shropshire Council is considering delivering materials to the site and removing waste through St Laurence’s CoE School. If this astonishing idea is adopted, deliveries of materials and removal of waste will need to take place out of school hours, creating considerable disruption to residents of Jockey Field.
Data published on Friday by the Office of National Statistics show that male agricultural workers have a suicide rate second only to low-skilled labourers. More than 60 men farming in England take their own lives every year. Richard Huffer farms in South Shropshire and is Shropshire Councillor for the ward of Clee. “To learn that agriculture has one of the highest suicide rates in England will come as no surprise for anyone in the farming community. We have all lost friends and colleagues in shocking circumstances.