Church Stretton Town Council asks for library deadline delay
A second Shropshire town council has called for more time to sort out what can be done with its library and leisure centre, among other cut-threatened services.
Church Stretton Town Council has joined Ludlow in resolving to demand more time from Shropshire Council to find alternative ways of funding or running tourism, leisure and libraries services in the town.
Officials said such a transfer of services by next April is "way beyond the capacity" of either town council or Shropshire Council staff.
Shropshire Council is set to slash budgets next April, and is asking town councils to consider taking on such services or find alternative providers by September.
Church Stretton mayor Michael Walker has now written to Malcolm Pate, leader of Shropshire Council, calling the timescale "unrealistic".
His letter follows a similar resolution by Ludlow Town Council to ask for an extra year to deal with the transfer of services, suggesting Shropshire Council take out a loan or dip into reserves to keep the library, museum and leisure centre running until April 2018.
Shropshire Council was unavailable for comment.
In Church Stretton, Councillor Walker said the library in particular was still the subject of legal talks after residents raised a judicial review to halt plans by the county council to move it out of its town centre building to Church Stretton School.
But, he said, all town councils were facing similar challenges.
He told Councillor Pate: "The proposed time-table will place intolerable strain on town and parish clerks, with few support staff, having to deal with service transfers with limited experience of the process involved.
"The recently completed transfer of Rectory Wood and Field to Church Stretton Town Council took 18 months. his was facilitated by the previous experience and legal training of our town clerk, which is unlikely to apply in all instances.
"However, the inpracticality of the current timetable applies even more to your own staff.
"The staffing of key human resources, property services and legal departments has undoubtedly been reduced, so multiple asset transfers will be way beyond their capacity within the proposed time-scale.
"Added to this is the very belated recognition of the potential clawback of monies that could be involved in closing facilities built or improved with grant funds – just one example of the unrecognised complications that will need to be resolved before transfers can occur."
