Council will be ready to take on street services

A town council has said it will be ready to take on new responsibilities on 1 April.

Shropshire Council has asked town and parish councils to take on some of the services it currently provides, such as street cleaning, in an attempt to cut its budget.

Shrewsbury Town Council is one of four to take part in a trial scheme. Town clerk Helen Ball said her authority has purchased new equipment, including vehicles, to get the work done.

She also said she believed that while this was a pilot, the handover of these jobs would become permanent.

The town council will take on services including street cleaning, litter picking and public bin emptying.

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

The Lib Dem leader of the town council, Rob Wilson, said the extra cost was "modest" and added that people in Shrewsbury had enjoyed the lowest town council precepts in the county until now.

"We can keep taxes low and have poor public services, or we can look at improving those public services," he said.

The Reform UK town councillor Harry Hancock-Davies agreed that the authority would "deliver the services at a much better standard".

But he said: "What is not acceptable in my view is the fact that we've doubled the precept overnight. This increase is going to have a big impact on people."

Ball said the town council decided to take on the extra services after listening to residents, who said they wanted the services delivered better.

"We've taken the bull by the horns and said we can do it," she added.

Wilson explained: "The news from Shropshire is that its going to get worse over the next few years, so rather than sitting back and complaining about it, we're choosing to do something about it."

As a result of the changes, Shrewsbury would go from three street cleaners to 12 and from having one road sweeper which served the whole county, to having two purely devoted to the county town.

Ball said the town council was still in the process of purchasing the equipment, but would "hit the ground running" on 1 April, when Shropshire Council makes the handover.

She said people would notice the streets cleaned more often in future.

Wilson also confirmed that some money had been set aside, in case the town council was asked to take on more services in the future.

Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.