Letter: Super issues over merger

The prospect of saving £14 million per annum is attractive as there is little prospect of improvements in local authority financing for many years ahead. It would also bring some political balance and perhaps a better standard of debate on important issues.

But I do envisage one major problem. Aside from the inevitable battle over where the merged county HQ would be sited, such a merger would exacerbate the distance between top tier and parish/town council levels that is a marked feature of the county since the second tier authorities were abolished. Wikipedia tells me that there are 102 lower tier councils in Shropshire Council's area, an astonishing number for a sparsely populated county.

Many of these are tiny parishes with few resources. As far as I can make out they rarely collaborate effectively or speak with a unified voice (with the recent exception of having their central government grant stolen by the county authority). I suggest that if the merger plan gains support, it should be a heavily qualified proposal with the condition that parish and town councils would be strengthened, have more powers and in many cases also merged.

Where I live in south-west Shropshire, I propose the recreation of Tempsiter, a name dating from the Dark Ages whose boundaries neatly encircle what was a natural community then and, despite unhelpful modern administrative boundaries, still functions as such in many ways. Shall we start designing a flag?

Patrick Cosgrove, Bucknell