Every council has meetings.Some have strategies.Some have visions.A few even have plans. What they are supposed to have, particularly when tens of millions of pounds of public borrowing are involved, is a clear understanding of risk. Recently, a Freedom of Information request asked Shropshire Council to produce exactly that: the documentation showing its financial exposureContinue reading “Cornovii: The Risk Nobody Can Quite Find”
Tag Archives: politics
WHEN TRANSPARENCY MEETS REALITY
THE NIGHT OSWESTRY TOWN COUNCIL FORGOT ITS OWN HISTORY There are council meetings that drift quietly into obscurity, preserved only in minutes nobody reads and archived somewhere between ‘apologies received’ and ‘any other business’. And then there are meetings that accidentally reveal how power behaves when it assumes nobody important is watching. The latest OswestryContinue reading “WHEN TRANSPARENCY MEETS REALITY”
Transparency at the Local Council
Now With Added Devolution, Fewer Services, and Even Less Memory Local councils are, we are endlessly assured, champions of transparency. This is said often, confidently, and usually just after something significant has happened without anyone quite noticing. Transparency, in the modern council sense, does not mean visibility. That would invite questions. Instead, it means thatContinue reading “Transparency at the Local Council”
Shropshire Council’s Financial Strategy: How to Look Solvent While Running Out of Road
The Calm Voice at the Edge of the Cliff There is a particular tone councils adopt when the numbers stop adding up. It is not panic.It is not honesty.It is reassurance. Shropshire Council’s Financial Strategy for 2026–31 is written in that tone. Calm. Managerial. Responsible. The kind of document that wants you to feel thatContinue reading “Shropshire Council’s Financial Strategy: How to Look Solvent While Running Out of Road”
WHEN THE ARCHITECTS LEAVE AND THE BILL IS SENT TO OSWESTRY
There is a pattern emerging in Shropshire that is now too obvious to ignore. Senior officers design risk.Senior officers depart.Residents are handed the invoice — repackaged as “local choice”. Last week, Miranda Garrard, Head of Legal and Democratic Services at Shropshire Council, became the fourth very senior officer to leave suddenly. Her farewell statement spokeContinue reading “WHEN THE ARCHITECTS LEAVE AND THE BILL IS SENT TO OSWESTRY”
Smile, Pay, Be Quiet
The Lib Dem Art of Hypocrisy: When Residents Speak and Power Laughs Written in another age, but uncomfortably familiar today: We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,OurContinue reading “Smile, Pay, Be Quiet”
Abolish Shropshire Council
It Didn’t Fail. It Worked — Just Not for You Shropshire Council was sold as progress in 2009 One council.One vision.One streamlined authority delivering better services for less money. What we got instead was something far more efficient: a system that concentrates power, disperses blame, and exports failure. Let’s stop pretending this is a glitchContinue reading “Abolish Shropshire Council”
Cowards of the County: Planning by Fear, Silence by Design
This Is What Cowardice Looks Like There is a new planning doctrine stalking Shropshire. It is not written down. It has not been voted on. It comes with no consultation, no mandate, and no courage. It is called Pre‑Emptive Surrender. Its guiding principle is simple: if a developer might win an appeal, fold early, avoidContinue reading “Cowards of the County: Planning by Fear, Silence by Design”
WHY SCRAPPING THE PCC WON’T SAVE US
There comes a moment in every great British farce when you realise the people in charge are no longer even pretending to steer the ship — they’re simply rearranging the deckchairs and congratulating each other on their boldness. That moment arrived the second Westminster announced its latest stroke of governance genius: abolish the one electedContinue reading “WHY SCRAPPING THE PCC WON’T SAVE US”
THE INVISIBLE HAND THAT BUILDS SHROPSHIRE (AND IT ISN’T THE COUNCIL)
There’s a strange rumour doing the rounds in Shropshire’s housing circles:“Homes England has taken over Wrekin Housing Group.” Now, this is only partly true — but the truth it reveals is far more interesting than the rumour itself. Because once you dig beneath the polite announcements and the PR gloss, a picture emerges that’s lessContinue reading “THE INVISIBLE HAND THAT BUILDS SHROPSHIRE (AND IT ISN’T THE COUNCIL)”
The Alternative Council 