THE COUNCIL
I have long had serious concerns about the depth and scope of the cuts Shropshire Council are making to services in our area but things are now poised to get worse.
As part of attempts to cut the UK Government’s spending deficit Shropshire was asked to cut £40 million from its spending for this year but instead is cutting £80 million. Worse it is going to sell off virtually all its existing property and create whit is calls a ‘virtual council’ using rented property as accommodation. Whilst there is some spare property that should be sold,selling everything will only mean a short term gain with the taxpayer loosing out in the long term as we end up paying for rental on expensive commercial property for an indefinite period.
There also seems to be no strategy in place to manage the Council’s redundancy programme either with many Departments, Planning for instance, loosing too many members of staff for it to function properly.
MARTON ROAD
The main road through Marton was resurfaced (at long last!) in October. If there are any issues such as blocked drains etc arising from this work then do not hesitate to contact me.
BROADBAND
The Council has been trying to use EU regulations on support for private businesses as an excuse for not delivering on broadband to much of our area. Recently. I brought down Phil Bennion, Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands to meet local businesses including a company in Pennerley that specalises in this field. Phil will be putting pressure on the council to say exactly where is due for an upgrade (its all rather vague at present) as well as clarifying with the European Commission how they can fund private companies to help expand the coverage.