Double standards from council

Of course, you are more likely to be aware of the first: a group of Navy personnel, including Shropshire's Faye Turney, who spent two weeks shopping in Tehran for some dodgy-looking suits. The nation was repulsed. . . the suits didn't even fit.

The second hostage crisis may not have hit your radar (especially if it's being operated by the British Navy) because it hasn't attracted anywhere near the same level of global coverage. No tabloid headlines. No television coverage. No rolling commentary. Yet it's just as outrageous.

Halls Auctioneers has invested millions of pounds in Shrewsbury and the rest of the county since it was founded in the town in 1845 - bringing in even more money than that as a result of its high-class reputation.

Now it wants to move from its cramped Welsh Bridge premises and link up with the livestock market it runs on the Battlefield Industrial Estate.

A simple operation you would think. Unfortunately the Halls' directors haven't accounted for Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council.

One minute SABC is encouraging businesses to move to Battlefield (why would it have spent a fortune on the link roads around it otherwise, or indeed rented the Livestock Market to the very people it doesn't want to move there en masse) but when it faces losing a well-known name from the town it decides to play the hostage game.

The application to move has been turned down countless times already on the basis that Halls brings "vitality" to the town and is frankly too important a name to be allowed to leave. Whether it does directly impact on tourism though is a matter of opinion.

I wonder how many visitors and tourists make their way to Shrewsbury just to take in an auction and leave and how many actually come for the full package of history, entertainment and charm.

It's like saying to Wayne Rooney at 17 that he has to stay at an under-performing club in Everton because he's too precious. In that instance managers protect their interests, not take them hostage. They get the best price and ensure they continue good relations.

Instead, Halls has become nothing but a victim of its own success; handcuffed to the Welsh Bridge regardless of whether it can continue to be successful there or not.

But if business is being stifled by the location, surely holding them to ransom will only prevent them from developing the brand? And then what will happen?

In every respect Halls has done its bit for the town over the last 162 years. It owes Shrewsbury absolutely nothing but Shrewsbury owes it a lot.

What the town planners should be concentrating on is the dreadful businesses dotted around the county town which barely stay open six months.

If they want to do something about encouraging visitors they could make it easier to park, easier to get around and open up areas along the river which are being criminally under-used.

Now the Sabrina is chugging her way up and down the Severn, isn't it about time the council turned its attentions to the buildings which look out on to it? How come the building next to the Armoury, the old Bar Severn, has been allowed to rot for years?

At the moment both parties are in unchartered territory. Let's hope Halls come out of it with more than just a bad suit.