New Ludlow mayor warns of service crisis

Councillor Tim Gill said that while the immediate threat of Shropshire Council service cuts may seem to have eased in recent month, behind the scenes they are still hanging over town councils – and will likely lead to crisis for some services.

However, he said there had already been more "positive tones" coming from Shirehall as Councillor Peter Nutting has taken over as leader there, telling Shropshire Council's first full meeting earlier this month that smaller town and parish council areas needed more attention.

But Councillor Gill said: “Even with the change in leadership of Shropshire and the slightly more positive tones coming from Councillor Nutting, the next year and years are to be a difficult and controversial time for the town council. We will have to rely increasingly on our own resources as Shropshire Council continues to abandon more services.

“Pressure is already on Ludlow to take more on. The town council, in my opinion, will not be able to afford to take them all on.

"I don't see how we can ask our tax payers to raise all that money, and in any case we couldn't because we would be capped.

"At the end of the day we don't have the money and we're not going to be able to raise it, some of these services will have to close.

"I would quite happily put up banners on those buildings and services that say 'closed by Shropshire Council'," he said.

He said the full, true cost of taking on services – including things like necessary staffing changes – were still not being made clear in meetings and one of the major problems with services run by town councils was that the costs would be spread unevenly, especially in an area like Ludlow where a comparatively small town served a very large rural hinterland.

He said: "What should or should not be taken on will prove to be a thorny question, not only because of cost but also because some of our friends in villages bordering the town will have closer access to town services they are not contributing to, than some townsfolk."

He said, for example, places like Ludford, which has its own parish council, would not have to contribute towards the costs of town centre services – despite being closer to the town centre than some suburbs covered by Ludlow Town Council..

"Every time Shropshire Councils takes out a service you are effectively asking for just 10,000 people to pay for that, while people form the surrounding area who use that service pay nothing," he said.

"This is still hanging over us in these meetings," he said.