Ludlow Residents' Association is wound up after 'passing its sell-by date'

A spokesperson said while everyone who turned up expressed the wish that the association should continue, "no-one had any suggestions as to what its role should be and no-one offered to stand for the committee".

On paper, the association, which was was founded in 2002, has 50 members but on March 29 only 10 turned attended the meeting at the Mascall Centre, plus four committee members, which just qualified as a quorum.

Di Lyle, who had been chair of the residents’ association since 2019, said: “It is sad to have to admit when something has reached and indeed passed its sell-by date, and I am sorry this has happened under my watch.

“But those who established the organisation and gave it direction can be proud of what it achieved.”

In its heyday, the residents’ association, initially formed as the Ludlow Town Centre Residents’ Association, acted as a lobbying group, representing the views of people living within that designated area.

It raised concerns and issues with Ludlow Town Council, Shropshire Council and Ludlow MP Philip Dunne about planning applications, parking, traffic and speeding, crime and public safety, litter and dog fouling.

It also had a fighting fund of £2,700 in its bank account. A discussion about what to do with the money provoked a lively debate.

Those present agreed unanimously to grant £700 to the current Ludlow Town Council Mayor's charity, Ludlow Young Health, and £500 each to Hands Together Ludlow, the Ludlow Food Bank, the Friends of Ludlow Hospital and Ludlow Defib 4 You.

Di added: "The decision to widen the membership to Ludlow residents generally rather than those in the town centre was, on paper, a democratic one; but that decision resulted in the organisation losing its identity.

"It proved difficult to attract residents who lived outside of the town centre, and as other single-issue grassroots groups gathered momentum, the residents’ association struggled to find a raison d’etre. Hence its demise."

Thanks and appreciation were given to Mike Beazley and Margaret Cartwright, two long-serving committee members, and Kathy Cowell who joined the committee at the same time as Di Lyle and served as secretary.