Ludlow town centre is still doing well but some areas look a bit down of heel of late. We have too many empty shops. Too many blank windows. The reasons for this are complex. Online retail. Supermarkets. Parking charges. Rents. Rates. And retirement of owners of independent businesses. Empty shops are not good for the people who live in our town. They are not good for our visitor economy. As citizens, as artists and as councillors we have no powers to fill empty shops. But we can smarten up our town centre. That’s why we are launching Brighter Ludlow, an arts initiative to smarten up the town centre with vibrant installations in shop windows, led by the community. Working with Gather, a new cowork, arts and cultural space in East Hamlet, we aim to get going quickly. We have raised initial funding from SY8 Studios and Tally Ho Inn Bouldon, and Hundred House […]
Category: Ludlow
Shropshire Council was warned about the state of the Tollgate play area three months ago
A temporary repair has now been put in place for the fencing on the Tollgate play area which blew down last October. I raised the lack of repairs at Shropshire Council’s cabinet last Wednesday and was promised temporary repairs. I pressed for these to begin the next day. The temporary repairs began that afternoon and were completed Friday. Permanent repairs, however, will cost £25K according to the response I received, an outrageous amount for around 40 metres of fencing. “Quotes have been sought for permanent repairs to the play area but costs circa £25k are prohibitive in the current financial climate. It is recognised that the condition of the existing fencing is unacceptable and damaged sections will be removed, made safe and temporary repairs instigated so that children can play safely. This will be undertaken shortly.” The repairs will not cost anything like £25K according to Shropshire Council officers and […]
The leaning phone box of Ludlow was becoming an attraction but it is now fixed
At around 7am yesterday morning, a reversing delivery truck from a convenience store struck a glancing blow to the BT telephone booth on the corner of Upper Galdeford, Lower Galdeford and Tower Street. It’s beside the Ludlow Mural at the former Budgens and directly opposite the Queens. By late morning, the leaning phone box had become an object of wonder. A work of art perhaps. People stood, stared and talked about the new attraction in Ludlow. The “leaning tower of Ludlow” at least one wag called it. There is a part of me that wanted to leave the phone booth as it is. Leaning and artistic. An attraction in its own right. A micro version of the famous tumbling telephone boxes of Kingston-upon-Thames.
Brown and Francis (Peak) pharmacy will be taken over by Lunts
This is not unexpected news. Brown and Francis is too small a store to thrive in an age where pharmacies are underfunded by government and the range of services pharmacies must provide is increasing. A 30% cut in NHS funding in real terms has led to the closure of 1,400 pharmacies in England since 2015. MPs, including Helen Morgan MP, have protested in a letter to the government but to no avail. Ludlow’s three pharmacies handle around 21,000 prescriptions a year, down from 23,000 a year and a half ago. That drop will be down to more patients ordering their prescription through an online delivery service. All Brown and Francis (Peak) patients will be transferred to Lunts though they can as always elect to go elsewhere.
Shropshire Council approves hike in car parking charges – that’s not a surprise but it will damage Ludlow
Parking charges will go up in Ludlow following a decision by the Economic and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee not to refer the proposed increase in charges in our town back to the council’s cabinet. Charges for Wem and for Shrewsbury in the evening and on Sundays will be reconsidered by the cabinet. I spoke for Ludlow at the meeting but could not put forward a recommendation because I am not a member of the committee. It was established during the meeting that £4.3m “surplus” had been generated from parking charges in Shropshire over the last three years. I argued in my submission that that was sufficient to pay for the parking reviews and increased staffing costs the council was planning. It was stated that this “surplus” was used for the purposes within the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. No evidence was given on where the £4.3m had actually gone […]