Grants, Ghosts and Governance: Oswestry Town Council Exposed

Due Diligence by Daylight: Oswestry’s Comedy of Errors

Oswestry Town Council loves a scheme. A rickshaw here, a mechanic there, and a fireworks display that arrived later than the last bus to Gobowen. But when it comes to due diligence, the Council doesn’t just miss the mark — it doesn’t even bother to aim. Blindfolds are cheaper.

Rickshaw to Nowhere

2022: OTC throws £15,000 into the pot, BID matches it. Voilà — Oswestry has a shiny tricycle, the very symbol of sustainable transport.

2024: another £14,000 lobbed in for a mechanic and “running costs.” Fast forward to today, and the rickshaw is rarer than a councillor taking questions without a script. Some say it’s parked in a shed. Others suspect it’s gathering dust behind a “Project Completed” sign. Wherever it’s gone, it’s certainly not carrying shoppers or value for money.

Yesterday, a would-be customer ventured into Oswestry Cycle Hub, perhaps hoping for answers — or at least proof that something in Oswestry still moves on wheels. What he found instead was a small gaggle of staff in deep conclave, the sort of “meeting” that looks suspiciously like a group rehearsal for shrugging. When he asked a simple question about their products, he was informed — without irony — that no one was available to speak. One can only assume the agenda read “Public Engagement — Not Today, Thank You.”

Clearly, the spirit of civic disengagement has spread — or rather, freewheeled — from the Guildhall to the high street. Accountability in Shropshire doesn’t so much move forward as wobble aimlessly, brakes squealing, before collapsing in a heap of taxpayer-funded scrap metal.

By the way have they paid any rent yet?

Fireworks Fizzle

2 November 2024. Cae Glas Park. Families gathered. Kids clutched glowsticks. Excitement filled the air — until it didn’t. Instead, the fireworks display staggered into the sky an hour late, spluttering like a damp match. The apology from OTC came quickly, the action plan less so.

The officer in charge? David Clough, Oswestry’s Markets & Events Officer. A man now synonymous with events that never quite land on time, budget, or expectation.

Clough & Clark Inc.

But Mr Clough doesn’t just do fireworks and markets. Alongside his partner, Linda Clark, he has quietly built a cluster of four companies — a property outfit, a coffee house, a retail venture, and another property holding company. Between them, the household has already drawn in public grants. For the average resident, this isn’t levelling up, it’s levelling in.

Town Clerk’s Dodge

Faced with two simple questions — did you know about these business interests, and do you think there’s a conflict of interest? — Town Clerk Arren Roberts delivered a masterclass in evasion. His reply:

“The decisions on the grants were made by Council in line with the eligibility criteria and are a matter of public record.”

Two questions. Two opportunities for clarity. Two artful dodges. It’s the kind of answer that says everything by saying nothing.

The Grand Reveal

Behind the bunting and the council minutes lies a neat little portfolio. Not one company, not two, but four separate firms linked to Mr Clough and Ms Clark:
• Clough and Clark Property Ltd – bricks, mortar, and asset building.
• Forage Oswestry Ltd – shopfront facelift courtesy of taxpayers.
• Smithfield Coffee House Oswestry Ltd – latte art and another address on the grant trail.
• Laburnum Drive Properties Ltd – property dealings, planted firmly in the mix.

Through this mini-empire, the household has enjoyed the benefit of HSHAZ grants totalling £36,942.30, plus a £5,000 ‘Breathing New Life’ award, alongside the separate sums funnelled into the Cycle Hub experiment. That’s a public tab stretching closer to £42,000 — dressed up as regeneration, but looking suspiciously like patronage.

And when the Town Clerk was asked the obvious questions — did you know, and is there a conflict? — he offered the kind of reply that belongs in a Yes Minister script: “The decisions were made by Council in line with the eligibility criteria and are a matter of public record.”

WOW! That’s like Starmer on steroids.

It’s a line that dodges both questions while proudly waving a process manual in place of accountability. If this is due diligence, it’s diligence with the lights off.

So there it is: a council that can’t manage a fireworks timetable, can’t keep track of a tricycle, and won’t answer a straight question. Transparency, Oswestry-style: always promised, never delivered — except to those already at the till.

Let’s have a closer look at the Red Flags:

The Laburnum Drive Vehicle (and the Clough–Clark Company Cluster)

Laburnum Drive Properties Ltd looks impressive until you dig deeper. Incorporated on 18 April 2025 (Company No. 16395968), it is registered not in Oswestry but at The Old Bakery, Well Lane, Ffynnongroyw, Holywell, CH8 9UT — a picturesque address with no corresponding Land Registry titles. Directors and persons of significant control? The same duo: Linda Leonora Clark and David Anthony Clough, each with more than 25% shares and voting rights.

I’d love to show you a photgraph of the Old Bakery building, but unfortunately none exist. A holiday home perhaps?

How it fits with the wider cluster

• Clough & Clark Property Ltd (No. 15614311) — linked to 10 Smithfield Road, Oswestry, with NatWest charges recorded mid-2024.
• Forage Oswestry Ltd (No. 13468290) — based at 20 Church Street, Oswestry, with Ms Clark as director.
• Smithfield Coffee House Oswestry Ltd (No. 15643129) — also tied to 20 Church Street, again with Ms Clark as director.

Taken together, the pattern is unmistakable: a blend of personal ownership, corporate vehicles, and now an out-of-town shell, all tied back to the same household.

Why this raises red flags

1) Opacity — a freshly-incorporated property company with no visible assets, registered at an out-of-town office.
2) Conflict — companies benefitting from or connected to properties where OTC and Historic England backed grants have been spent, while Mr Clough holds an official role at the Council.
3) Clawback — grant conditions usually demand repayment if a property is sold within a set period. The Council must show how it monitors and enforces this.
4) Process — the Town Clerk’s reply dodged the questions entirely. That absence of clarity is itself a warning sign.

The Halls Twist at 20 Church Street

In April 2023, Halls Estate Agents proudly opened their new Oswestry office at 20 Church Street.
Yet Land Registry is clear: the freehold is still owned by David Clough and Linda Clark, bought in 2018 for £160,000.

So here’s the loop:

• HSHAZ and OTC grants (totalling over £40,000) helped spruce up the property.
• Clough and Clark remain the landlords.
• Halls moved in as tenants, paying rent into private pockets.

A textbook regeneration miracle: the public pays for the facelift, the private owner pockets the rent, and the Council calls it “success”.

Red flags don’t prove wrongdoing — but they do demand daylight. Until the Council demonstrates its due diligence, residents are left to wonder if Oswestry’s regeneration money is being used to revive the high street or to expand a private portfolio.