'Residents will see town's cleanliness improve'

The leader of Shrewsbury Town Council has said residents will see a "significant improvement" in the cleanliness of the town from April.

Services including street cleaning, litter picking and public bin emptying are being taken on by the authority, after Shropshire Council said it could not afford to provide them.

A 97.9% increase to the town council precept was approved this month, which means Band A properties will pay £114 per year to the town council from April, and Band B properties will pay £133.

"It's not just going to be taking it on at the level it's being done right now, it's going to be improving it back to the standard that our residents expect," said council leader Rob Wilson.

"We're going to be asking for £5 per month for most households.

"It's a bit of money, but we think it's a price worth paying for a cleaner and safer town."

Wilson said streets would be "swept properly again" with leaves removed from the road instead of left on either side of them.

"Although the job's being done to tick a box right now, I don't think it's being done properly - we're going to be bringing back into town two street sweepers, a team of nine people to do the job properly again," he said.

Shrewsbury Town Council spends £250,000 per year on flowers in the town.

When asked if this could be reduced to stop the precept increase rising as much, Wilson said: "There's always things we could cut back on, but I think if we did, we'd hear from residents very quickly that they didn't want us to do that."

"I think people really value what we do in the town centre making it look wonderful, but also around the rest of the town - it's such an important thing for Shrewsbury as a town of flowers, it's not something to cut back on."

Wilson said the town council would invest in two sweepers - one for roads and one for footpaths. There will also be new vans and staff.

"We've got 12 new jobs that have already gone live on our website," he added.

In response to some residents calling the precept rise "double taxation", Wilson said they were paying for an improved service.

"People aren't paying twice for the same service, they're paying Shropshire once for the bare minimum service, we have to make it clear that that's below the level that's being provided for right now - the town council is going to be lifting that funding up to make the service better."

Discussions are also ongoing about the town council potentially taking on responsibility for CCTV.

"What we want to see is CCTV that is maintained at a standard that can help our police, help our town centre, security staff, and particularly our businesses and our residents, to feel safe," Wilson said.

He said that "absolutely" could involve more monitoring, as well as changes to equipment, but those discussions were ongoing and more information would be publicised later in the year.

The town council has also set aside £250,000 in its budget that would be spent on protecting Shropshire Council services like the museum or Old Market Hall, should the county council have to issue a Section 114 - or bankruptcy notice - and stop spending on all non-statutory services.

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