Parish council seeks fresh faces to help
A parish council near Ludlow where all four members stood down after claiming they were being 'ignored' by Shropshire Council has a new lease of life.
Three Shropshire councillors have stepped in as an interim measure and are now on the lookout for new parish councillors to take over the role at Nash Parish Council.
In April, four councillors stood down with immediate effect saying they felt they had no influence with the local authority and that they were wasting their time and tax payers' money.
But now, Gwilym Butler and Madge Shineton, who are councillors for neighbouring divisions and Richard Huffer, the local unitary councillor, have taken on the mantle and are appealing to those living in the parish to consider becoming local councillors.
Councillor Butler, who is acting chairman, said: "We have tried to reform the council and we want to dismiss the idea that people are not listened to. We are writing to every person in the parish asking them to take part and we will be supporting them to create a new parish council.
"We are looking for a minimum of four new members to form a new parish council. That may take a few months but the three of us will be offering them all the support we can to make that happen.
Proactive
"We advertised our first meeting and we had two people come along. We are being as proactive as we can in driving this forward.
"Although we are running the parish council now and we have a responsibility to meet four times a year, we are keen to enable to community to take back control and make sure that the newly formed parish council does not feel alone again."
Councillor Butler added that the new members of the parish council would receive full training in matters concerning council policy including planning and standing orders.
One of the complaints of the previous parish council was that their views on planning applications were ignored.
Councillor Butler said: "Planning can be an emotive topic. Certain criteria have to be fulfilled when objecting to or granting planning applications.
"I can understand the frustrations of the previous council."
The next meeting of the parish council, which anyone can attend, will be held on September 25, at Nash Village Hall starting at 7pm.
