Clun Shropshire Councillor Nigel Hartin has slated the Shropshire Community Health Trust for potentially creating a 'health desert' in the South West of the County by their hurried shutting of Bishop's Castle Hospital.

Nigel said: "Bishop's Castle Hospital plays a key role in health care across a huge part of rural southwest Shropshire including my Division. If we take these hospital beds out of service during the winter months it will impact disproportionally on elderly patients and their families taking them to hospitals a long way from their communities. Also, the outpatients' services in physiotherapy, podiatry and audiology at the hospital will be sorely missed.

Dear All

The Shrewsbury Big Town Plan was set to remove the bus station from the town centre that would penalise many in rural areas such as ours travelling into Shrewsbury by bus.

Please take a look at this and take part in it. Where is the bus station in the plan?

https://newsroom.shropshire.gov.uk/2021/10/shrewsbury-riverside-sdf-consultation-launch/

Shropshire Councillors in the Bishop's Castle Area have reacted angrily to the sudden closure of the town's hospital on Thursday.

Heather said "What has really annoyed me is this was done almost by stealth. Very few people knew what was going to happen.

"On the very day that the closure press releases were being sent out the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee was meeting. An emergency item should have been tabled. (see note). I will be requesting that this is examined next time we meet.

Heather Kidd has challenged the West Midlands Ambulance Service for its continuing poor response times and its failure to achieve cooperation with Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust at a recent meeting of the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)*

Heather, who is a member of the Committee, said: "The rural south west has had a long history of poor response times and we know that by the end of the day our ambulances are being called away and used in Wolverhampton and Birmingham after they deliver Shropshire patients there. We also know that ambulances are held up at the Royal Shrewsbury in particular. This leaves us with poor ambulance cover here and people facing several hours wait for an essential service.

1.Road Safety. A road safety study being carried out on whole length of the B4386 from A5 to the Powys border looking at aspects such as speed, the character of the road and the traffic using it. In addition, another study is looking at the introduction of 20mph speed limits work going on for Chirbury and Long Mountain Primary Schools. The Parish Councils and I have been lobbying for these for some time and will be pressing for some action on the results.