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Shrewsbury Town Council Stepping Up

Shrewsbury Town Council Stepping Up

Councillors and Senior Officers of the Town Council have been talking with their counterparts at Shropshire Council regarding Shropshire’s continuing budget pressures.  Shropshire Council is facing a financial crisis with more cuts likely in the coming year.  These cuts might mean changes to local services, particularly around leisure, culture and tourism together with a reduction in environmental maintenance standards (clearing pathways, emptying litter bins, sweeping streets etc). These services may decline but at worse cease.

The Town Council has already agreed to support their budget savings through finding cost reductions in existing contracts with Shropshire Council, agreeing to take on the maintenance of CCTV in the town centre and clearing key pathways which have been dropped from routine schedules.
Our Councillors have discussed concerns with residents and we think we can do more to help in many ways, particularly by building our capacity in street scene, public realm and environmental services where we already have an excellent track record and expertise, including:

• Taking more care of footpaths, pavements and footbridges, including litter picking and clearing snow and ice
• Replacing existing litter bins with new recycling litter bins where appropriate, maintaining them and ensuring that they are emptied as required.
• Maintaining benches in public places
• Dealing with graffiti, flyposting and fly tipping
• Cleaning signs, wayfinding boards and street name plates
• Adding planters, floral features and street trees

(Examples of current issues)

This is a comprehensive “All Town” initiative so we want to develop a team to go out into all 17 wards of the town and sort out some of those grot spots and tidy up areas that everyone moans about. We want to regain paths and cycleways that have become overgrown, yet in places leave areas to grow wild where nature can take over.

We want to develop further pride in our local communities and the town centre by ensuring areas are well swept, street furniture is well maintained and initiatives that help keep us all safe like CCTV, Rangers and Lighting are protected and where possible enhanced.

(Example of new litter bins)

We have already developed plans to act on all the areas the public have suggested we look at as part of our previous Vision and public consultation work which includes finishing off our bus shelter replacement programme, upgrading play & green space facilities, improving facilities in the Quarry and the County Ground as well as developing new facilities like Shorncliffe Recreation Ground that are lacking.

(Examples of work currently undertaken to assist Shropshire Council - Before & After)

 

Recent Consultation

Those recent well supported consultations showed that:

73% of respondents want us to support initiatives to assist the Violence Against Women & Girls Initiative

69% of respondents want us to keep refurbishing our 60+ play areas

70% of respondents want us to explore ways to support the CCTV system

85% of respondents want us to maintain the conservation qualities of the town

80% of respondents want us to develop a long-term management plan for the Quarry

59% of respondents want us to continue to contribute to Big Town Plan Movement Strategy projects

87% of respondents want us to take a more active role in the management of the public realm

67% of respondents want us to develop opportunities for rewilding designated areas by cutting the grass less

81% of respondents want us to improve footpaths

66% of respondents want us to plant street trees

74% of respondents want us to support local cycling & walking infrastructure

Obviously, these important developments cannot be pursued without additional expenditure and to make a really significant impact we need to increase our budget so as to generate an extra £530,000.  This will lead to an additional amount of precept charge on all council tax payers in Shrewsbury. For example, the 70% of householders in Shrewsbury are on Band B so would pay an extra £15 a year (less than 30p a week). Others would pay slightly more or less. The tax bill attributable to Shrewsbury Town Council, for Band B is currently £51.66, or £1 per week. This would rise to £67.70.

It is worth noting that the present Precept for Shrewsbury is very much lower than comparable councils nationally and well below the County average. Some examples are: National Average £174, Shropshire Average £85, Bayston Hill £99, Oswestry £96, Ludlow £216, Bridgnorth £160, Market Drayton £123 and Whitchurch £150.

Hence, we believe that all in Shrewsbury will continue to have excellent value for money including our new ways of working which will be significantly enhanced services.

Your Views

We believe that Shrewsbury Town Council can make a difference to our everyday lives, our pride in the town we love and our general feeling of safety. As we move forward, we want residents to be involved and play a part in developments. We particularly want you to let us know how you feel about the current proposals before we move to the decision-making phase later in January. For example:

Do you approve of our overarching strategy for dealing with declining services?
Are our priorities in line with yours?
Do you believe that the package represents value for money?
Are there other areas we need to consider?

Please take 5 minutes to complete the survey below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RLCB5LC

Thank You

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