Dear All

I spent some time talking to the guy in charge of the closure itself. This is what he said:

• The closure will now only run from 9.30am - 3.30pm. although today when I drove around they were gone by 2.30pm!!
• When they are working on the poles it will not be possible to drive through (as several people were today - under the cherry picker which was pretty dangerous) . they will park vans to block it so that workmen are not put in danger at any point.
• They will be finished as soon as they can hopefully before the 9 days are up.
• They were working today just up from Snailbeach village hall. They will be working towards Stiperstones from there.
• Access to frontages will be either side of where they are working.
• There are signs up now at Pennerley showing that the road is open to Stiperstones Inn and Tankerville Pottery. All access is from that direction when the road is closed - especially to the shop!

Councillors in rural south west Shropshire have expressed their shock and anger at Shropshire Councils sudden threat to business rate relief. On a whole range of public buildings.

Heather Kidd said "This came as a bolt from the blue. This will have a massive impact on a whole range of organisations who are holding rural communities together. Shops, Post offices, scouts and girl guides, village halls, senior citizens clubs, amateur sports clubs could all suffer."

Residents in the West Shropshire villages of Hope and Bentlawnt have demanded that Shropshire Council gets its act together and give their Post Office service a dedicated phone line.

Heather Kidd said: "The Post Office in Bentlawnt closed over a year ago. Since then the Post Office from Pontesbury have been running an outreach service in nearby Hope Village Hall every Wednesday. Local residents have rallied round and turned the occasion into a major social event every week with teas, coffees and soup being sold to raise funds for the village hall. Local shops have also come along to run stalls.

Hi All

Please see attached the new voluntary car charging parking sign at The Bog and photos of the newly erected Ropeway Trestle next to the Bog Visitor Centre.

Heather

This is the latest on next week's road closure;

The closure is proposed from Tuesday 3^rd April to Friday 13^th April to coincide with school holidays.

The road will be closed between 8am and 5pm only (open at other times too).

The road will be closed at these times on weekdays only (so 9 working days of closure over an 11 day period) and reopened for use outside of those hours and at the weekend.

Dear All

Western Power have put up signs in the Snailbeach and Stiperstones area stating that the road will be closed for 10 days from 3rd April

Local residents were supposed to get letters from Western Power explaining what was going on but few did. Those who did either thought it was about their electricity supply and possible outage or were confused about where it was happening. This communication does not appear to have been a consultation and has left everyone confused about what is actually happening. They did not consult me or the pub and shop.

Residents in the villages of Worthen and Brockton in the west of the County are to enact a whole string of measures to try and curb speeding traffic and increase safety for residents. A meeting was organised by Heather with Shelve Parish Council to gather ideas and start to make things happen.

Heather said: "The problems are that the road has straight stretches which encourage irresponsible drivers to put their foot down on the way into, through and out of the villages. We have narrow pavements which make mums with buggies walk on the road and people with mobility scooters travel down the road. We also have large numbers of HGV's travelling through the area."

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a major overhaul of the powers of local councils to meet the goal of ensuring that everyone in Britain has a home.

The package, passed by the party at its Spring Conference in Southport, calls for new powers that will see local authorities able to build and invest in more affordable and social housing. This includes greater access to borrowing for local authorities, strengthened powers to bring empty homes back into use and the power to direct the use of otherwise unwanted public land. Alongside measures to allow local government to abandon Right to Buy and to require that profit from council house sales is invested in new social housing.

These proposals would empower local communities to provide the affordable and social housing that Britain needs and tackle the housing crisis head on.

Cllr Heather Kidd, who spoke in the debate, said:

"Having a place to call home is a basic human right. In the face of a national housing crisis we are failing as a country to fulfil that right. It is clear that the private sector cannot be relied upon to deliver affordable homes for those struggling to get on the housing ladder."

"Social housing is one of the pillars that underpin our welfare state. It is a vital safety net for tens of thousands of families who cannot afford to rent privately, let alone ever buy their own homes. We need local government and housing associations to provide new social housing directly.

"The Tories seem content with presiding over an end of social housing. Their ideology is ownership, they don't believe we need social housing at all."

"We need to move away from providing shadowy land banking and towards greater housing provision. That is why the Liberal Democrats are empowering local councils and communities to provide the housing that is needed."

A consultation will start tomorrow, 16^th March, from the Forestry Commission

See below:

This email is intended for the following Parish Council areas:-

• Minsterley
• Pontesbury
• Church Pulverbatch
• Ratlinghope
• Worthen with Shelve
• Chirbury with Brompton
• Longden
• Frodesley
• Ruckley and Langley
• Cardington
• Church Preen
• Longnor