Charting a course for Shropshire’s future as county election looms
With less than six months to go until Shropshire Council’s elections, the parties vying for control of the authority have started their pitch to the county’s voters.
Voters will go to the polls on May 6 next year to elect a new cohort of 74 councillors to represent them for the next four years.
Roger Evans, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, the council’s second largest party, has urged people to seize the opportunity to ditch the “incompetent” Conservative administration.
It is, however, a big ask. The ruling group, under council leader Peter Nutting, holds 48 seats – well over the 38 needed for a majority.
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Councillor Nutting has thanked electors for putting their faith the Conservatives since he took over as leader in 2017, which he says has ensured the council has gone from strength to strength.
He said his administration was continuing to work on big projects relating to economic development, health, housing and leisure.
“In Whitchurch we are nearly organised for a new doctors surgery at Pauls Moss, and the scheme will also include a doctors’ surgery and social housing," he said.
"That’s subject to a judicial review, but we hope it will be resolved in the next few weeks and then it will be all systems go.
"Work has already started on the first Cornovii development in Monkmoor in Shrewsbury, there is a scheme at St Martins and a planning application has gone in for a big scheme at Ellesmere.
Supportive
“There is a huge development in Shrewsbury town centre and I am really excited about the Oswestry Mile End project, which will open up about 50 acres of employment land. In Market Drayton we have got to consider the Greenfields Recreation Ground – the town council wants to relocate the sports pitches to outside the bypass.
“The Air Ambulance wants to change its site at Cosford and we are supportive of the plans, and also very supportive of any extension to the RAF Museum. It is looking like it could be one of the major tourist attractions in the West Midlands.”
Other projects being explored include changes to youth services in Bridgnorth, improvements to the Ludlow park and ride, and investment in the regeneration of Bishop’s Castle Business Park.
Councillor Nutting said: “I think we have only just started on the journey of economic development and I think we need another four years to deliver some of the schemes we have started.”
The next council administration will also see the authority move out of the Shirehall in 2023 and relocate to the Pride Hill shopping centre. Councillor Nutting said this presented an “enormous opportunity”, provided the finances “stack up” and planning permission can be obtained.
Councillor Roger Evans, who leads the main opposition group of 12 Liberal Democrat members, will have an uphill battle to win control of the council, but said he was confident his group’s strong history of challenging the current leadership and putting residents’ interests first would stand them in good stead.
Intention
He said: “We are working not only to become the major party, but to be the governing party on Shropshire Council.
“Our intention is to put a full slate of candidates up in May and win the majority so we can change the way things are run.”
Councillor Evans said the 2017 local elections were overshadowed by the general election coverage.
“We could see a change in people’s views in the fortnight before the election," he said.
"We lost the focus locally as the national media was focusing on Labour and the Conservatives, and a number of people who we expected to be elected didn’t get elected because of this change.”
Councillor Evans said his group members, unlike the Conservatives, were encouraged to speak at meetings on any issue affecting their residents. All 12 sitting councillors, most of whom have considerable majorities, will be standing again in May.
He said: “Our philosophy is that our communities come first.
Transparent
“When we take over the council, residents will find a real change in the way the council and committees operate.
“There will be no behind closed doors decisions, it will all be open, transparent, and everything will be said in public and recorded.
“Shropshire Council used to have an open door policy when it came to answering residents’ questions, but with the current administration that has largely stopped – whether because of workload or because of instructions, I’m not sure.”
The Labour group won eight seats in 2017 and currently has six sitting members, all of whom will be standing for re-election next year.
Group leader Alan Mosley said: “The only councillors we have got now are in Shrewsbury, but historically we have held seats in Broseley and in the Oswestry area. We will be fighting very hard in all areas, concentrating on those areas where we have particular strengths.”
Austerity
Councillor Mosley accused the Conservative leadership of crying “crocodile tears” over being forced to make service cuts which have “seriously impacted a lot of people”.
He said: “Over the years the austerity measures and cuts implemented by the central government have been a disaster for many of our services.We are seeing the impact on our highways in recent years, and there are a number of school safety schemes which have been abandoned because of cost.”
Meanwhile Julian Dean hopes he will no longer be the only Green member in the chamber following the election.
He currently sits with the seven-strong independent group under leader Pauline Dee and said: “One thing that won’t change is working cross-party.
“We have got a few target seats where we think we are in with a serious chance. In 2019 in other parts of the country there was a real Green wave and we actually doubled our number of councillors, including a couple of surprises.”
Councillor Dean said he was confident that the mounting public concern over climate change and the environment would translate into votes.
Economy: Creating jobs is key
Creating jobs and supporting start-up businesses will be key to the county’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, Shropshire Council’s leader has said.
Peter Nutting said large-scale projects across the county, including the creation of the long-awaited Oswestry Innovation Park and investment in Bishop’s Castle Business Park, would help to foster business growth and provide vital employment opportunities.
But opposition councillors have criticised the current council leadership for ploughing money into controversial schemes like the Shrewsbury shopping centres, and said more focus on apprenticeships and ‘green recovery’ was needed.
Councillor Nutting said: “There is a huge development in Shrewsbury town centre and I am really excited about the Oswestry Mile End project which will open up about 50 acres of employment land, that is a huge opportunity.
“We have spent money on Ludlow Assembly Rooms, far more than we budgeted for, but when it is finished it will be the cultural centre of south Shropshire for the next half a century. We are now investing in Bishop’s Castle – we are putting some money in and Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is also investing money in a scheme to renovate the business park.”
Liberal Democrat Roger Evans said economic recovery should mean looking again at the plans for the Shrewsbury shopping centres, which he described as a “money pit”.
He said: “The council also has £150 million in capital sitting in the bank currently, earning less than one per cent interest per year.
“We would look urgently to invest that, like many other authorities have, in housing, businesses, street lighting, various ways to both combat climate change and reduce our running costs of providing these essential services.”
Labour leader Alan Mosley said Covid-19 presented the county’s businesses with a “tremendous challenge” and said the council must prioritise “ensuring that businesses sector, and visitor economy, is made as secure as possible”. He described the shopping centres as “not a good investment”.
Housing: More affordable homes needed
More affordable houses will be built in Shropshire in the coming years in an attempt to re-balance its ageing population, councillors have pledged.
Shropshire Council leader Peter Nutting said providing the right housing – and jobs – to keep young people in the county would be vital in its economic recovery from the coronavirus pancemic.
He said his ruling Conservative group had already made significant strides towards addressing the problem, partly thanks to the creation of the authority’s own housing company, Cornovii Developments Ltd.
He said he was confident that he would, if successful in retaining control of the council for another four years, see Cornovii build 1,000 new properties during that time.
Councillor Nutting said it was also vital to ensure new housing was built in the right places, which is why, he said, he did not support proposals from Bradford Estates to build 3,000 properties near junction three of the M54 near Tong.
Pauline Dee, leader of the group of independent councillors, said it was the council’s responsibility to ensure developers meet local needs, rather than catering for affluent city dwellers looking to relocate and retire to the countryside.
Opposition leader Roger Evans said a Liberal Democrat administration would put the needs of communities first when planning new housing, and work to ensure new developments – and existing housing stock – become carbon neutral.
Councillor Evans said the next administration would “inherit” the new local plan, which sets a target of more than 30,000 homes to be built by 2038, of which 25 per cent – nearly 8,000 – will be affordable. He said: “We would try to ensure numbers of affordable housing are increased and that they are built where communities want them.”
Labour group leader Alan Mosley said a major concern for his party was the government’s proposed overhaul of the planning system, outlined in the ‘Planning for the Future’ white paper, and the impact this could have locally in “reducing the involvement of local people in determining policy”.
Environment: Demand for a ‘new approach’
Shropshire Council needs a radical new approach to tackling the climate and ecological crisis, opposition councillors have said.
Accusing the ruling Conservative group of “playing” at reducing the council’s carbon footprint, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green members said the current leadership was failing to implement the changes necessary for the authority reach its target of net zero carbon by 2030.
And with six months to go until the local elections, they said the next administration must do better.
But council leader Peter Nutting dismissed the claims and said addressing the urgent threat of climate change was a key priority for the council.
Julian Dean, the authority’s only Green councillor, said “very little” progress had been made since the council voted to declare a climate emergency in May 2019.
He said: “The first issue is the council’s own emissions, what it’s directly responsible for, and we have seen a few schemes coming forward but we haven’t seen a fully costed plan. Neighbouring councils like Herefordshire have done it, so it’s not an impossible task. We really need to do that and it needs to cover all the contracts that we have, all the investments and it needs to cover the pension fund.”
He said the council should prioritise active travel and public transport schemes to reduce reliance on cars, and invest in green skills and jobs to help the county recover from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Roger Evans, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said if his group was in control of the council, “climate action would be top of our list”. Councillor Evans said: “The council is just playing at it at present. They have set a target of the council being carbon zero by 2030, but we should be setting an example to other companies and should be asking the contractors who work for us what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint.”
Labour group leader Alan Mosley also said it was important for the council to set an example and steer the direction of the wider county towards more eco-friendly ways of living and working – and providing the funding to make it happen.
He said: “I do think that in terms of Shropshire as a whole there is too little investment in providing the infrastructure of support for real initiatives.”
Roads: New £87m link is ‘absolutely needed’
Shropshire Council leader Peter Nutting today reaffirmed his commitment to the North West Relief Road, saying he had “absolute confidence it is needed”.
The route will provide a new, single carriageway road linking the northern and western parts of Shrewsbury. It will include a new bridge over the River Severn and its flood plain, and a new bridge over the Shrewsbury-Chester railway line. It will connect the A5 at Welshpool Road roundabout in the west to the Ellesmere Road roundabout in the north.
Councillor Nutting said: “I believe it’s the key to improving pedestrian and cycling facilities within the town centre. It will enable us to get a huge amount of traffic off Smithfield Road and out of the town centre.”
He added that he was confident the project would not go over its £87.2 million budget, of which the council is responsible for £19.8 million.
But opposition group leaders said the traffic modelling for the road should be re-examined in light of lifestyle changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
Labour leader Alan Mosley said: “Clearly it may well open up opportunities to improve the air quality and the general atmosphere of the town centre in Shrewsbury, it may well relieve some areas of Shrewsbury of significant amounts of traffic on inappropriate roads, it may provide convenient routes for people going around Shrewsbury rather than through it.
“Covid-19 and the long term impacts are a key issue. Numbers of people working from home and internet shopping were rising before Covid, and Covid has fast-forwarded those trends that were going to happen anyway.”
Councillor Mosley said funding should be committed to upgrade the county’s bus fleet to hydro or electric vehicles, which he described as a “no-brainer”.
Roger Evans, of the Liberal Democrat group, also questioned whether the NWRR was the best option. He said: “That money would be much better spent on Dobbies roundabout where the A49 crosses the A5, if that could be turned into an underpass.”
Julian Dean, Shropshire Council’s only Green councillor, said the time and money being spent on the NWRR was to the detriment of other much-needed highways schemes across the county.
