Shropshire Star

Council leader's vow over historic Ludlow walls

Talks will be taking place to finally resolve who is responsible for fixing Ludlow's fallen town walls, Shropshire Council's leader has said.

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In the 18 months since a section collapsed behind St Laurence's Church, on Upper Linney, a wrangle continues over who should foot the bill for the repairs to the historic walls.

With both Ludlow Town Council and the Diocese of Hereford denying responsibility for the repairs, AndyBoddington, Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow North, will be raising questions about what is happening at a full meeting of Shropshire Council on Thursday.

Now Shropshire Council has written to both St Laurence's Parochial Church Council (PCC) and Ludlow Town Council suggesting "mediation talks" to resolve who is legally responsible for what, Keith Barrow, leader of Shropshire Council, has said.

In a preview of his answer to Councillor Boddington's questions, Councillor Barrow said: "Shropshire Council has been actively engaged from the outset in trying to find a solution to the collapsed section of the town wall."

But, he said, both responsibility for repairs and taking steps to carry them out were "highly complex matters" due to "different and overlapping pieces of civil and ecclesiastical legislation".

"The council appreciates that it is now over 18 months since the collapse first occurred and fully understands the urgency of repairing the damage to this nationally important piece of our heritage," he said.

"We recognise the importance of working in partnership with all of the interested parties and have been in dialogue with them. We also established an officer group to co-ordinate the council's approach. The council's engineers Mouchel are undertaking regular inspections of the collapsed section and the stabilisation works that were put in place to ensure the public safety is maintained."

On who is responsible for repairing the walls, he said: "It would appear that the PCC transferred the maintenance of the church yard to the then-town council in the 1930s. There is also further evidence the town council has been maintaining, at least in part, the church yard and the wall since this time."

To add to confusion it was not clear whether the wall pre-dated the 13th century church as a separate town wall or not, he said, which again would affect who was responsible for it.

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