Bridgnorth and the Long Mynd in 1954

Another gem from the BFI's Britain of Film collection. This one shows a photographic society, apparently from Atherstone in Warwickshire, on a trip to Shropshire in 1954.

There is good footage of Bridgnorth and its cliff railway and also of the Long Mynd.

Click on the photograph above to view it, though that signpost on top of the Mynd has long ago disappeared.

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Church Stretton points the way forward for funding local services

From the Shropshire Star today:

Church Stretton Town Council has agreed to set up a “working group” to look at the services in the area put at risk by Shropshire Council cuts. 

It will launch consultation with people living in the town over whether to raise the council tax precept to help fund such services in the future. 

The move has come in response to Shropshire Council’s proposed budget for 2017, which suggests stopping all funding of services such as libraries and leisure centres.

This report reveals the scale of the cuts the government is inflicting on local government.

For decades the Liberal Democrats campaigned for local services, but then we adopted George Osborne's economic opinions during the Coalition years. When we start campaigning for local services again, as we must, we risk at best puzzling the voters.

But there may be something interesting at work here too.

When I was a councillor my impression was that people did not worry about the level of taxes so much as whether they got value for their money.

And maybe such judgements mean more when money is raised and spent locally.

So could Church Stretton, which you can see in the photo above, be pointing the way forward for local government?

It would go against the current thrust of policy in local government, which is all about the abolition and amalgamation of authorities and the appointment of regional mayors, but I would like to think so.

Mind you, such increases in hyperlocal taxation can be controversial, as the case of Desborough shows.

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The Long Mynd and Stiperstones shuttle bus starts tomorrow

Running every Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday until 2 October, this service connects Church Stretton with the remote country around the Long Mynd and Stiperstones - and with some very good pubs too.

A sad paragraph at the bottom of the Shropshire Hills Shuttle Buses page says:

Unfortunately, Castle Connect, which ran between Ludlow, Knighton, Clun and Bishop’s Castle will not be running in 2016. This route was set up three years ago as part of Shropshire’s Sustainable Transport Project. Now that funding has ceased, the cost of running this service for another year was in danger of putting the future of the Long Mynd & Stiperstones Shuttle at risk. Thank you to all who supported this route over the last couple of years. We are looking at other options to better link the towns with the hills, and will be applying for new grants to support this.

My photo shows the shuttle bus near the car park beneath the summit of the Stiperstones, with the Long Mynd in the distance behind it..

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Shropshire gags councillors over Church Stretton Library case

St Laurence's, Church Stretton

On Wednesday I blogged about Shropshire Council's decision not to contest the judicial review of their decision to move Church Stretton Library to a less central location in the town.

The mighty Andy Boddington, a Liberal Democrat member of the authority, tells us what happened next:

We had a high court case over libraries last week. The council withdrew and lost the case. 

Since then it has launched a vitriolic campaign against the local campaigners in three press releases. 

Late on Friday, the chief monitoring officer and chief executive slammed a gagging clause on all councillors. The gagging memo is phrased as a “request” but I know that if any councillor ignores this request is ignored, flack will fly in their direction. 

We are told we cannot comment in any way on the case. That probably means that I can’t comment on the council reaction. Or why it has decided to attack a local community at the same time it is planning to work more closely with local people.

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BBC says Church Stretton library campaigners have won

A year ago I blogged about Shropshire Council's plans to move Church Stretton Library to a less central location.

After that local residents sought judicial review of the council's decision.

Today, at 12:40 on its Shropshire Live page, BBC News reported that:

Campaigners fighting plans to move Church Stretton's library say they have won their legal battle against Shropshire Council. 

They say the authority conceded the case moments before it was due to be heard by a court in Birmingham.

The report in the Shropshire Star is more guarded, and I suspect that is wise, but at least I have a chance to use my photo of the library again.

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Mike Storey to visit Church Stretton and Bishop's Castle

A good write up for the Liberal Democrat peer in the Shropshire Star:

Lord Mike Storey is the Lib Dem spokesman on education in the House of Lords and will be visiting two south Shropshire towns whose leisure centres both receive funding via schools, and face a shortfall of tens of thousands of pounds due to cuts. 

Lord Storey, who was a headteacher and also leader of Liverpool City Council, is expected to visit Church Stretton on January 22, where the future of the town’s swimming pool is being reviewed. 

He will then visit Norbury Primary School, near Bishop’s Castle area, and the SpArC Centre in Bishop’s Castle, which is also threatened by cuts.

The report also quotes Charlotte Barnes, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Bishop's Castle:

"Our leisure centres contribute to the well-being of our residents, they help to keep people healthy and happy. 

"They must save the care budgets a fortune and of course they are one of the few places to offer young people activities in our more isolated areas."

The scale of the cuts being inflicted on council spending represents an area of vulnerability for the Tories. David Cameron, for one, has not grasped what George Osborne is doing to local services.

I hope the Lib Dems will take up this issue in the way that Mike Storey and Charlotte Barnes are in Shropshire. Such a campaign will mean more to our traditional voters than a call for further tax cuts.

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Listening to the Long Mynd and Stiperstones shuttle

The Long Mynd and Stiperstones shuttle bus will start running again on Saturday 30 April 2016, running every weekend and bank holiday Mondays until the end of September.

While we wait for spring, we can enjoy the audio commentaries on the website devoted to this service. If you know these hills you need only close your eyes to see them.

There is even one that mentions Malcolm Saville.

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