Shropshire MP questions funding for local councils highlighting 'woefully inadequate' sports facilities in Market Drayton
An MP has spoke of "woefully inadequate" sports facilities in Market Drayton that she claims the local council is unable to afford due to being "underfunded".
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North Shropshire MP, Helen Morgan addressed MPs during a debate last Wednesday on Government support for rural communities.
She called on Food Security and Rural Affairs Minister, Daniel Zeichner MP to push for greater funding for local councils, including Shropshire, saying the Government is in danger of "leaving them critically underfunded compared to their urban counterparts".
During her speech, the Liberal Democrat MP highlighted plans for a major revamp of sports facilities in Market Drayton.
Plans to revolutionise facilities at Greenfields Sports Ground and at The Grove School were recently unveiled.
The project is expected to cost more than £6million to complete, but Active Drayton - a group made up of local authorities and sports organisations - says it will now have to embark on a large-scale fundraising process to fund the improvements.
Mrs Morgan claimed that local councils have been "underfunded" meaning projects like improvements to sporting facilities in Market Drayton have been affected.
Speaking in Westminster Hall, the North Shropshire MP said: "I want to pick up on the impact of poor local authority funding on cultural opportunities for people in rural areas with things like grassroots sports.
"Lets take for example Greenfields in Market Drayton which is a woefully inadequate sports facility for a growing town of more than 10,000 people.
"The council can’t essentially afford to improve those facilities. They have got great plans but no money for them and that is because local councils are so badly underfunded.
"The cutting of the local services delivery grant cost £9million for Shropshire, it is an area much bigger that Greater Manchester with people spread evenly across the county in a space of about one per hectare and the cost of delivery in services is far in excess of that in an urban area.
"So I must ask the Minister to look at how we value the costs of services when we fund local councils because we are in danger of leaving them critically underfunded compared to their urban counterparts."
