Today, the number of signatures of the petition to save the household recycling centre (HRC) passed 8,000. Thank you everyone. If you haven’t signed there is still time: https://bit.ly/cravenarmsrecyling. Shropshire Council has now said that the closures, approved by Conservative councillors on a five vote majority, may not happen. Ian Nellins, the portfolio holder for waste and recycling has now said all options for cutting the costs of the HRCs rather than closing them are being looked at. I have proposed increasing the proposed charge for green waste by £8 a year to pay to keep the HRCs open. The council is looking at other options, such as closing each of the HRCs up to two days a week but ensuring that all are open at weekends. It is currently discussing options and costs with Veolia. This is welcome news.
Category: Shropshire Council
Council Cuts: Shropshire Council to close Shirehall and sell it to raise money
There has long been a split in Shropshire Council between councillors who want to keep Shirehall and this that want to demolish it and move to the town centre. Last December, the council agreed to dispose of the building in the next few years after work on Civic Hub in the town centre is completed. That Civic Hub is still in the ideas stage and there is no clear idea of where the money will come fund it. Unless the council sells the 3.5 hectare Shirehall site for housing boosting its capital reserves which were depleted by the £51m purchase of the shopping centres in Shrewsbury town centre. The budget plans agreed two weeks ago days propose that Shirehall is sold before April 2025 to make a saving of £325,000 in 2024/25.
Council Cuts: Housing waiting list to close except for priority cases
As part of the package of £62 million cuts agreed by Shropshire Council, the waiting list for social and council housing is to be closed except for those most in need. I raised concerns about this at council on 29 February and received some information from councillor Dean Carroll, the portfolio holder for housing. The next day I sought clarification. This arrived yesterday evening. Currently the housing register is open to allcomers, including people with no local connection. The “temporary” changes being brought in will close the register except to those most in need. That will include everyone to which the council owes a statutory duty, for example because they are homeless. The council is concerned that some social housing is being allocated by housing associations to people who have sufficient resources to live in the private sector or have no local connection.
Minor wall collapse at Dinham House is being assessed by Shropshire Council
We have had a few wall collapses in Ludlow, as would befit any ancient town. The collapse of the town wall behind St Laurence’s church is in a league of its own for the procrastination over responsibility and costs. The collapse of the lower section of the boundary wall for Dinham House is a far more straightforward affair. This is not, as some people have assumed, a section of the town wall. It is wall bounding the garden of Dinham House. The house is listed Grade II*. The wall is listed by virtue of being in the curtilage of the house. The collapse is at the base of the wall and seems to have been triggered by the heavy rainfall over the last few weeks.
Council Cuts: Chester University to leave Shropshire after councils officers tell it to leave Guildhall
What have the Conservatives done for Shropshire? Not much, I would have said, but at least they brought a university to our county. Now even that is not true. The University of Chester is leaving its base at the Guildhall in Shrewsbury Frankwell at the end of term. The University is looking for a new home in Shropshire but it doesn’t sound committed to remaining. The Conservatives are talking about moving the council into the Guildhall so that it can flog off the Shirehall site for housing and use the money to pay for its pet projects around Shrewsbury town centre and the North West Relief Road. Here is a shocker. The decision to give the University of Chester it marching orders was not made by Shropshire councillors or by the council leadership. It was made by council officers and the leader of council, Lezley Picton, did not know about […]