Shropshire Council "Meet the Leader" event - Lezley Picton, Leader of Shropshire Council will be holding her next "Meet the Leader" session in Bishop's Castle. Lezley will be at the Town Hall between 10am and 12pm on Wednesday 13 July. This is a drop in session on a first come first served basis. Please do take part if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with Lezley. I am aiming to be there and will be raising issues such as the lack of affordable housing, the state of our roads and the lack of public transport, however if would be much more powerful if individuals raised these and other important issues. Please use this opportunity to make your views heard.

100 years of Bishop's Castle Community College - the celebrations to recognise 100 years of the Community College in Bishop's Castle (formerly Bishop's Castle County High School, depending on your age ) start on Saturday 2^nd July, 1pm to 5pm at the school. There will be photographs, competitions, music, interviews, food and bar. See the attached poster. If you have any photos, memorabilia, art and craft work items etc from your time at the school please do bring it along. Further celebrations are planned for September.

Clunbury Climate and Environment Group has arranged a talk, hosted by Councillor Nigel Hartin, Shropshire Councillor for Clun Division, on Wednesday 29^th June , at 6.30pm at Clun Memorial Hall. The keynote Professor John Whitelegg, an international authority on sustainable transport

Cllr Hartin said; "I am pleased to host this meeting in Clun, coming at a time of increasing challenges faced by the Country in meeting its climate targets and most particularly to welcome the highly influential speaker, Prof Whitelegg who is an international renowned authority on sustainable transport who will describe exactly what we have to do to reduce transport carbon and how this reduction benefits all 350,000 residents and deals with the emergency."

The stunning Lib Dem parliamentary by-election win in Tiverton and Honiton was not the only win of the night. The Lib Dems also gained the Highley seat on Shropshire Council in a tough three-way fight, gaining more votes than the Conservatives and Labour combined.

The by-election for the Shropshire Council Division of Highley was called after the resignation of Dave Tremellen, Independent. The Liberal Democrat candidate Mark Williams who has lived in Highley for nearly 35 years fought a strong campaign to represent the village he loves. The results were as follows:

Lib Dem - 630, 54.5% (+54.5%)
Conservative - 279, 24.1% (-9.5%)
Labour - 239, 20.7% (+7.3%)
Green - 9, 0.8% (+0.8%)

The Lib Dems have not fought Highley since 2013.

Agent, Heather Kidd, said " Mark is so well known in the community and we were absolutely delighted when he said he would really like to be the Councillor for Highley. He and the Liberal Democrat team worked so hard to win this election. He will make a great Councillor."

Marks said today: "I'm humbled to have won, especially with the numbers that came in. The fact that so many in Highley have put their trust in us is overwhelming.

"I want to live up to the expectations people have of us and of me.

"Highley is lovely already, but there's room for improvement. I've already spoken with the parish council so that I can work with them to move things along. I'm going to begin by getting more bins, and by working with the local primary school to do litter picks."

£150 Council Tax Rebate - Shropshire Council have confirmed that the time frame set by Government for the payment of £150 Council Tax rebates is for payments to be made from April to September. For resients paying by Direct Debit Approx 77,000 residents qualify for payment as they pay by direct debit and over 74,000 have been paid so far. For those residents that do not pay by Direct Debit a letter will be sent requesting that an application is made.