Shropshire Star

Telford Conservatives reveal priorities ahead of local elections

Telford's Conservatives have outlined their priorities ahead of the local elections, vowing to continue pressing the government over the future of Princess Royal Hospital, and to start the inquiry into child sexual exploitation "as a matter of urgency".

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Telford Conservative group leader Andrew Eade

The borough's Tory party is contesting all 54 seats across Telford & Wrekin in May's election, as it attempts to wrench back power from the Labour administration.

It has published its manifesto, and Conservative group leader Andrew Eade has called on voters to look for change at the ballot box, and pledged to revisit development plans for houses and businesses across the borough.

He said: "We are offering our community a fresh approach, and to wisely spend our money on key services which invest in our collective future. This is a clear chance to break away from the same old Labour council and look forwards hand in glove with all in our local community to bring about a change.

"We will reopen the council’s Labour/Lib-Dem local plan in order to protect our communities and open spaces from further unwanted and unnecessary development."

Councillor Eade said they would look to alter plans on borrowing as part of a 100-day budget if they win control of the council.

He said: "Council borrowing has spiralled out of control over the past eight years, quadrupling from £94m in 2011 to a whopping £365m in 2019. Clearly, this cannot be allowed to continue and the council itself must learn to live within its own means, and to do so without cutting key services.

Defended

"We will be reviewing everything from senior officer pay, to how and where the council does its business. Any merger with neighbouring authorities is also a complete and utter non-starter as Telford & Wrekin has its own distinct community and way of life which will be defended against all comers."

Councillor Eade said they would focus on the most important issues in the borough – the future of PRH, the CSE Inquiry, and development.

He said: "The borough has been left facing a number of unresolved key challenges. Firstly is our health services and the three different campaigns launched by the council which have all failed to protect services at the Princess Royal Hospital.

"More than two weeks after taking a unanimous council vote in favour; the Labour administration has still failed to ask the secretary of state for health to review the outcome of Future Fit. We will work directly with our two borough MPs, Mark Pritchard and Lucy Allan, to continue making direct representations to the secretary of state on behalf of our borough.

"Secondly, a full year has now passed since the Conservative group formally requested an extraordinary council meeting to force an immediate and independent inquiry into child abuse within the borough. Disgracefully, no such Inquiry has even started. A conservative administration would start an inquiry as a matter of urgency and look at additional initiatives to keep our children safe.

"A further issue is the Labour/Lib-Dem local plan which took from 2011 until 2018 to produce, leading to uncontrolled building right across the borough. We will reopen the local plan and review the council’s selection of building sites which still include building on a number of greenfield sites, including a huge industrial estate at Shawbirch."