Star comment: Council's silence is not golden

It wasn't even on the agenda, and

, with the leaders of the Labour and Lib Dem groups kicking up a fuss.

Now, before going over the top with criticism of this omission, the point was made that it is not normal to put such major financial issues on the agenda at the annual council meeting. There again, these are not exactly normal times, with the council throwing a variety of its services over the side of the ship and leaving it up to community groups and assorted volunteers to salvage them.

This is happening now, but the opportunity for a debate in full council will not arise again for weeks. This means that those councillors who are not in the magic circle of cabinet meetings, the method by which so much is determined in councils these days, are being denied a voice and any input until late in the day.

Salopians watching from the outside must be wondering what these council meetings are for.

The retreat of the council from providing certain things, like many smaller libraries, is arguably the most far-reaching change in the nature of its role within the Shropshire community for a generation, or many generations. It is doing less, but council tax payers are not seeing their council tax going down.

Its package of cuts and savings is a matter of great public interest and considerable controversy. This is a hot topic in which the path being chosen is going to affect Salopians for years to come.

One councillor has alleged that the council is "well on its way to becoming a democratic shipwreck." The council's retreat from doing things should not include a retreat from allowing full discussion, but there does indeed appear to be a democracy deficit when there are unpalatable and pressing issues which deserve to be discussed, and there were plainly councillors itching to discuss them, and yet there was no debate.

Shropshire Council has held its meeting. But Shropshire has not spoken.