Call for specialist to be appointed over Ludlow's collapsed town wall
Calls have been made for a heritage specialist to be appointed to get Ludlow's town wall repair project in motion.
The stretch of Ludlow's historic walls, behind St Laurence's Church, collapsed in February 2013.
After a lengthy dispute over who should foot the bill, Ludlow Town Council agreed to take the lead in October 2015.
Now Andy Boddington, Shropshire councillor for Ludlow north, is calling for the appointment of a specialist to allow the work be carried out as soon as possible.
He said: "Ludlow Town Council is a fairly small council and it doesn't have any heritage experts.
"This is a complicated project, I'm a former archaeologist, and I know how complicated these things are.
"We're looking at between £500,000 and £1 million; it's a very serious amount of money.
"Shropshire Council is trying to hand services over to other councils, everything's changing so all the councils are involved in the change and trying to deal with it.
"I think the walls have been forgotten about. We need to get somebody who has experience to get the application in.
"It's been four years, and it doesn't look like we can do it in the next two years.
"All the time the historic fabric is decaying."
The town walls project is listed among work to be looked at under the town council's action plan for the coming financial year, which says a structural engineer and project manager should be appointed.
But under the costings it also simply says "grant funding required".
Councillor Boddington added: "The town council has missed the 2017 funding cycle. There must now be doubt whether the council can get funding in place by 2018. It should appoint a heritage champion to ensure that there are no further delays in getting the walls repaired. Otherwise, I fear it will be years before the repairs start.
"An application for a large heritage grant takes at least a year, and in our cash-strapped times, two years is closer to the mark.That means we look like missing out on the 2018 season.
"That's why I think that Ludlow Town Council should appoint a heritage specialist to get this project going."
