No More Excuses. No More HMOs

It’s Time for Section 4 – and It’s Time Our Councillors Grew a Spine

It’s not complicated. Oswestry doesn’t need more HMOs. It doesn’t need absentee landlords stuffing vulnerable or unknown individuals into former family homes. And it certainly doesn’t need councillors who’ve chosen careerism and cowardice over public safety and common sense.

• – Our wives are walking past HMO doorways occupied by men who weren’t here last month.
• – Our daughters are being told to avoid certain streets at night.
• – Our sons are losing rental homes to developers who couldn’t care less where they come from or who they house.

Where Is Section 4?

It’s time for an Article 4 Direction on HMOs in Oswestry. Not next year. Not after a consultation. Now.

This legal instrument, which other councils across the UK have used for years, gives the planning authority the power to require full planning permission for all HMO conversions. No more sneaky “permitted development rights.” No more backdoor conversions. And above all, no more plausible deniability from councillors who claim they “had no idea.”

They know. Oh, they know.

So where is Section 4? Why are they dragging their feet while Oswestry is carved up room by room?

Councillors: You’re Not Here for the Developers

If you’re a councillor reading this, consider this your notice:

If you stay silent, you’re complicit.
If you vote it through, you’re finished.
And if you think hiding behind “national policy” will save your skin, you haven’t been paying attention.

This town elected you to represent us. Not the property speculators from Milton Keynes. Not the offshore shell companies buying up terraced houses for “asylum accommodation.” And not the risk consultancies pulling strings behind the curtain.

We don’t want your PR statements. We want action. That starts with a public pledge

• 👉 No more HMO approvals unless they are specifically for Oswestry-based residents.
• 👉 Full backing for an Article 4 Direction.
• 👉 A formal scrutiny committee to investigate who knew what, and when.

What About Protection?

Because here’s the thing: while you shuffle paperwork and posture about “inclusivity,” real families are living with the consequences of your inaction. The HMO on your street may house decent people, or it may not – but nobody’s checking. Nobody’s accountable. And nobody has the guts to say: enough.

Let me say it, then:

Protect our streets. Protect our wives. Protect our children. Or get out of the way for someone who will.

Because this isn’t just about housing anymore. It’s about who runs this town – the elected representatives, or the landlords and their bagmen in planning departments.

Call to Arms

If you’re a resident of Oswestry, this is the moment to act. Write to your councillor. Ask them if they support Article 4. Ask them if they’ll stand up for local people. And ask them – directly – if they’re proud of what Oswestry is becoming.

If they dodge, deflect, or disappear, you’ll know exactly who they’re working for.

MPs on Mute?

And speaking of elected responsibility, let’s not forget North Shropshire’s own MP, Helen Morgan. When Parliament debated the need for a statutory national inquiry into historic grooming gangs in January 2025, Helen was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t vote for it. She didn’t vote against it. She simply didn’t vote. Likewise, Labour’s Shaun Davies (Telford) also skipped the vote entirely—absence apparently being the preferred party line when confronted with the ugly truths of national failure. And for those who did show up? Julia Buckley, Labour MP for Shrewsbury, voted against the inquiry. Against uncovering the scale of systemic grooming. Against justice for victims. While others stood up to demand accountability, our regional MPs sat it out—or worse, sat on the wrong side of history. Oswestry deserves better than silent spectatorship and political evasion when national child safeguarding is on the line.

Either way, it’s time they answered a simple question: Will they raise the Oswestry HMO crisis in the House—or not?

⚠️ Councillor Alert

This is your warning.

In the next instalment, any councillor or Member of Parliament — town or county — who continues to dodge, deflect, or disappear on the HMO issue will be formally introduced to the public.

By name.
With commentary.

Moral fibre is no longer optional. Courage is no longer negotiable. Your silence is not neutrality—it’s complicity.

You ran for office. You asked for responsibility. Now wear it—or prepare to be worn down by public scrutiny.

Oswestry isn’t just for lease—it’s being leased out from under you. Time to change the locks.

MIA – Missing In Action