PARISH COUNCILS MEET TO DEMAND BETTER ROAD REPAIRS

South West Shropshire Local Joint Committee met on Wednesday (24 February). This is the first meeting in well over a year to demand action on the poor quality of our roads. The informal meeting was ably Chaired by Councillor Nigel Hartin ( Clun Division) and was really well attended on Zoom.

Eighteen councillors, Clerks and Shropshire Councillors, Nigel Hartin (Clun), Ruth Houghton (Bishops Castle) and Heather Kidd (Chirbury and Worthen) listened to a presentation from Andy Wilde (Head of Highways) and Mark Barrow, Director of Place, Shropshire Council. This was then followed by the Parishes and Shropshire Councillors raising a number of serious issues in our rural area.

These included:

The presentation answered some of these and the officers others. It was clear that we should expect all potholes to be filled in 20 days, that there are improvements going on in drainage, that we need to change the staffing levels around gritting and potholing so that winter maintenance does not stop potholing from happening – across the whole County, that there are problems limiting the size of agricultural vehicles on our small roads the Council are working with the NFU, there will be discussions with planning and the standard of work will need a cultural change.