Heather’s Report for February 2020
Dear All,
Consultants.
Shropshire Council paying £1,000 a day for a consultant on potholes when they are asking relatives to top up care fees of up to £150 per week for elderly relatives is quite frankly immoral. If the Council had planned the redundancies better (which they have also spent millions on) then we may have the expertise in house to make their contractors, Kier, do their job and fill potholes properly.
Other Councils are much better at doing this – our Cabinet seem to take the money they are paid and role over. My group are now asking for the resignation of Shropshire Council’s Portfolio holder responsible for the lamentable state of our roads
We have also learnt that the Cabinet have also spent another £380,000 on Consultants to upgrade Shirehall. The Council should have kept the expertise in their Property Services Department to do this work in house and save the taxpayer this huge sum.
The B4386 Safety.
The officer in charge of our proposed safety scheme on the B4386 has now been moved to other duties. I am now trying to find out who is now responsible. However, I have now received drawings for new white lining and signage at the Folly junction.
The tragic accident in Worthen last week underlines how urgent the work is on this road, traffic calming and safe pavements and crossing places. Although the police are still investigating this accident they tell me that speeding was not involved here but poor driving was. This is the spot where we had a previous near miss and is where we have requested a crossing. The Parish Council and I continue to work on this.
Other matters.
A blanket 20 mph speed limit outside schools was passed by Shropshire Council in December we have yet to hear how this is going to be implemented.
I have a meeting with Highway Chiefs to discuss the state of the A488 and the B4386 later this month. I am hoping that this will bear fruit now we have gold plated consultant in place.
Council Tax this year will be going up by 3.99% this year.
Best wishes
Heather Kidd,
Shropshire Councillor for Chirbury and Worthen.
Tel: 079806 35518 heather.kidd@shropshire.gov.uk www.heatherkidd.org. Facebook too!