Shropshire Council leader calls for single county authority
Friday 17th September 2010, 11:42AM BST.
The leader of Shropshire Council has called for a single unitary authority to govern the county in a bid to find multi-million pound savings.
Keith Barrow said he believed Telford & Wrekin should be brought back into Shropshire and said maintaining two fully-staffed authorities was a “nonsense” in the current economic climate. And he said he believed the idea would have the backing of the majority of Shropshire residents.
Councillor Barrow made the comments at a “Join the Conversation” public meeting in Craven Arms last night.
Representatives from Shropshire Council, West Mercia Police, Shropshire Fire and Rescue, Shropshire County Primary Care Trust and Jobcentre Plus outlined the challenges posed to the services they provide.
Councillor Barrow, who also told residents Shropshire Council needed to find a further £50 million in savings over the next three years, said: “I’d like to see Telford & Wrekin put back into Shropshire and to have one unitary authority — it would save us a lot of money.
“I think it’s a really good idea as at the moment it’s an absolute nonsense.”
Telford & Wrekin Council broke away from the former Shropshire County Council as an independent unitary authority in 1998.
The meeting was held to give residents the chance to learn more about the effect of the economic situation on local services and to have their say about which services should be protected.
About 60 people attended the meeting at Craven Arms Community Centre, and discussions included priorities for incident responses for the fire service, tackling anti-social behaviour and the potential role of the voluntary sector.
All panel members stressed the importance of joint-working between public sector organisations to help make the necessary savings without affecting front-line services.
Responding to Councillor Barrow’s comments, Telford & Wrekin Council leader Councillor Andrew Eade today said: “All councils are facing an extremely difficult time financially and this situation is predicted by many to only get tougher
“Councils must look at new ways they can continue to provide frontline services that our residents rely on.
“Telford & Wrekin Council will look at any measures that will help improve and protect services for its residents, but it will not consider anything that disadvantages its residents in any way.”
He added: “Clearly we are not here to subsidise services in other areas.”
By Peter Kitchen
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No thanks, we had long enough being subservient to Shrewsbury up until 1997 and then we’d be forced to contribute to things like that Quantam Leap sculpture and hideous theatre.
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I agree, Grey. It is clear that “their eyes were bigger than their bellies” and that Keith and his crew cannot govern the part of Shropshire they already ‘control’ without taking over the rest of it.
Though as some government deparments consider Telford and Wrekin to be a separate county, taking it over might not be as easy as Keith thinks it will be. Unless, of course, Keith wants to take over neighbouring counties, too, like Herefordshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire? Perhaps feels like anexing a bit of Wales?
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No way.
Why should we pay for Telford, they’ll cost us a fortune, with their high rate of teen pregnacies. council housing and free perks.
Telford will be more of a liability to us.
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Ironic then, that it’s Shropshire council with it’s supposed low teenage pregnancies, low council housing and no free perks that has run out of money and wants a share of Telfords.
Not a chance Mr Barrow
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Don’t forget our new civic building, 4 new schools and traffic jam free roads. While Shrewsbury has a nice new sculpture and an impending bin man strike…..
No thanks, Shropshire County Council is a laughing stock and a shambles,
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John Smith, Telford a Liability?… Telford & Wrekin Council is more financially stable than Shropshire Council and still has lower council taxes, while meeting its targets in many ares.
To be honest i dont want T&W Council to join back to Shropshire Council to become be ‘poor relation’ again!
So for very different reasons i agree with this shropshire snob!
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its simply a brilliant idea real conservatism
recognising what worked well in the past to serve society best. the wealth of of telfords borough combined with that of shropshires should be better managed its make real sense.
combining both council resources should save money and T&w labour wont have anything to moan about in replacing the civic offices ! win win eh ?
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Oh dear has Shropshire Council finally run out of money.
Their Planning Committeee has long since been the downfall of Shrewsbury and has always rejected the promotion of the town.
Our Council Tax in Telford has always been the lower and if we adopt Shropshire it will be raised. We don’t need Shropshire County Council, you caused the break up, now live with it.
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Why don’t they get rid of the Shrewsbury Town council that would save some money.
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The idea that this will save money is complete nonsense. When the single Shropshire council was created, all the existing district council staff and their offices were retained. Only the name changed. According to press reports at the time, any former district council staff who moved to County headquarters were subsequently moved back to their original offices because they were claiming travel expenses. You can bet your boots that if Telford and Wrekin is incorporated into Shropshire Council there will still be a huge office in Telford and all the existing staff will be retained. This is ju
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If it does go ahead, can we get rid of both highways departments and employ some people with some idea of common sense and road safety….PLEASE!
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so much for tory commitment to localism, lets have a regional government and join the eu whilst we’re at it shall we then furher barrow, this guy is totally out of touch
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no thank you – telford council are bad enough but shropshire county council couldnt organise a drinking competition in a brewery
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The idea of two local authorities officially merging in a fantasy, it requires a boundary review and I believe an act of parliament to implement. The review that resulted in T&W becoming a unitary authority was too recent for it to be looked at again.
However, there’s nothing to stop some services being shared by Shropshire and T&W council, on a contractual basis – I believe this already happens.
Fair play to T&W council, they saw the economic crisis coming years ago, hence they haven’t been forced to take the knee-jerk reactions that other authorities, including Shropshire, have been forced to.
The reasons for the creation of two unitary authorities across the county still remain – the needs of T&W are different to those of other parts of Shropshire. Any merger would result in an authority that was too unwieldy and responsible for too great a population.
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“Fair play to T&W council, they saw the economic crisis coming years ago, hence they haven’t been forced to take the knee-jerk reactions that other authorities, including Shropshire, have been forced to.”
Totally agree. Telford & Wrekin are in a much better financial position than most councils.
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#3 Dark Storm
[its simply a brilliant idea real conservatism]
Hang on was it not the Tories who using a large amount of taxpayers money fought against the unitary option which had much the same ideals as this?
If the councillors had not then got massive increases in their allowances turning them into what most of us would consider an income then we might have made some savings from reducing their numbers as promised.
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this is a good idea for shropshire but not for telford which has lower council tax lower debt etc, shropshire inherited masses of debt and pfi from scc, they are bust and desperate now, years of bad management
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What’s this, Shropshire Council cosying up to what they considered to be the B*&^ard child of Birmingham? An area which for many years they tried to strangle. Now after being successfully managed and run, previously by Labour and now by the Tories, they want it back.
No way should they get their grubby hands on our prosperous still growing town. The needs of the small minded minority in the rest Shropshire would always come first.
By the way I’m proud to say I was born and bred in Shropshire and I too once looked down on Telford but after 25 years in the Borough I wouldn’t move back. My relatives in the Shropshire council area pay more council tax, get worse services and in the rural areas pay ‘through the nose’ to prop up the county town.
The divorce is long since over Shropshire get your own life in order instead of staring longingly at your successful ex!!
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Please
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why stop there, surely it would be cheaper if hereforshire, cheshire, telford, shropshire, powys and worcestershire shared one cheif exec and one council, but hang on that would remove local control and accountability and lead to people running areas remotely with no local knowledge on public opinion or even practical issues like street names etc (we have all heard horror stories of wolverhampton based ambulance control staff struggling to direct paramedics to rural shropshire villages which have odd sounding names) even in shropshire already unitary is a proven failure which means people from ludlow decide on what happens in oswestry and a one size fits all approach is imposed from shire hall on all remote areas with no practical flexibility on the ground, no no no, no thank you barrow – this is a terrible idea really in my opinion
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“that would remove local control and accountability and lead to people running areas remotely with no local knowledge on public opinion”
And how is that different to what goes on now?
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really he should sort out his own financial black hole not ask telford residents to help plug it, i am sure from shire hall the massive amounts of business rates collected from telfords business parks looks attractive but shropshire should think about how they too could improve their transport network and relax their planning regime to allow more businesses into their area too, not try to pinch telfords revenue streams
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Yeah you could see this coming a long way away…. of course Shropshire Council would love T&W and the funding Telford, Newport, Wellington, etc and spend it in other areas of Shropshire County.
I like being part of ‘shropshire’ area, but if you ask me, i would prefer to be in a Telford & Wrekin Council resident, rather than a Shropshire County resident.
We have better facilities, and are already good facilities are all being upgraded without any cuts, as because T&W were clever and got pen to paper unlike dithering like other midlands councils, so the town gets all its new schools.
There is nothing wrong in sharing services to save money, but reintegration will just be bad for telford.
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Shropshire seemed to function fine until 1996 under one County Council. By having two authorities in the country we are duplicating adminstrative costs and wasting tax payers money. Is having “Telford and Wrekin” on your wheelie bin really worth paying extra council tax for? Even with both councils together Shropshire would still be one of the smaller councils so how can we hope to compete with others on funding when we are divided in this way? I think the two councils should come back together. Some departments could be based in Shrewsbury and others in Telford or somewhere between the two!
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Well its shropshire council which has one of the highest council tax areas in the west midlands… however telford & wrekin has one of the lowest.
So back to the original point, this would benefit shropshire residents, but not Telford & Wrekin Residents.
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