Category Archives: Uncategorized

Why was Shirehall excluded from the Council’s property review because demolition had already been assumed? There is a sentence in the Shirehall Task and Finish material that deserves to be printed on a large board and carried into Shropshire Council’s Cabinet meeting by someone with a working sense of irony. Shirehall had not been includedContinue reading “Shirehall: The Decision Made Before the Appraisal”

Shropshire Council has a gift. Not for financial control. Not for transparency. Not for learning from experience. Its gift is walking towards an expensive mistake with the steady confidence of people who have forgotten they are still limping from the last one. This time the mistake may be Shirehall. The building itself is not theContinue reading “Shirehall, Cornovii and the Council That Learns Nothing”

Gladman Developments have arrived at Market Drayton with the usual planning hamper. Inside it we find approximately 270 homes north of the A53, 10% affordable housing, biodiversity net gain, public open space, a wildlife pond, play facilities, planting, construction jobs, extra spending power and all the other comforting ingredients of the modern developer brochure. ItContinue reading “Gladman, the A53, and the Highways Department We Are All Expected to Trust”

Shropshire Council has a wholly owned housing company called Cornovii Developments Ltd. You may remember the promise. Build homes. Generate income. Act commercially. Deliver value. Produce a return for the Council. Very glossy. Very confident. Very ‘leave this to the experts, citizens, we have a spreadsheet’. Then the numbers started behaving badly. In 2019, theContinue reading “Cornovii: A Public Question of Capability”

Shropshire Council is not currently evidenced as having issued a Section 114 notice (Bankruptcy). That distinction matters. But it should not be used as a comfort blanket. The council has not fallen through the formal legal trapdoor. It has, however, reached the point where exceptional borrowing permission, severe spending controls, a major council tax riseContinue reading “Shropshire Council: The Price of Failure “

There are moments in local democracy when a short email says more than the sender probably intended. Recently, after circulating public-interest material, I received the following reply from a Shropshire councillor: “As an elected councillor I am frequently contacted by residents in my division about a range of issues, should I need information on thoseContinue reading “When “Tone” Becomes the Excuse for Ignoring Scrutiny”

This is no longer just about Cornovii, Mile Bank, or West Mercia Police appearing reluctant to engage with serious allegations placed before it. It is about something bigger: the widening gulf between authorities on one side of the desk and citizens on the other. On one side sit councils, committees, officers, legal teams, scrutiny structures,Continue reading “The Council That Mistook Silence for Governance”

There is a smell around the Wain Homes development at Mile Bank, Whitchurch. And no, this is not just another drainage joke, although the file has done its level best to earn one. This is the former dairy site at Mile Bank, linked to planning references 13/03481/OUT, 18/00552/REM and 25/01781/VAR. It is now surrounded byContinue reading “Mile Bank: The Development File They All Seem Afraid to Open”

There is now one question Shropshire Council should answer. Are ordinary family homes in Shropshire being acquired through linked property companies, financed through secured charges, and potentially prepared for small-HMO, multi-occupancy, temporary accommodation or supported accommodation use before residents and councillors know what is happening? That is not an allegation. It is the question. AndContinue reading “The HMO Money Trail: Oswestry, Debt and Luxembourg”

There are moments in local government when the mask slips. Not dramatically, obviously. This is Shropshire Council, where even a civic collapse is expected to queue politely behind an agenda item. No, the mask slips quietly, usually under words like strategy, sustainability, partnership, scrutiny and that trusted municipal sedative: stakeholder engagement. The latest Shropshire CouncilContinue reading “The Bill Comes Home: Shropshire Council’s New Age of Managed Decline”