Tag Archives: writing

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”

Cowards of the County: They Broke It, You’re Paying

Localism, Lies – and the Great Parish Bill Shropshire Council has perfected a simple, cowardly trick: when something costs money, it stops paying for it and pushes the bill onto someone smaller. Then it smiles, calls it *localism*, and waits for parish councils to take the anger. This is not devolution, reform, or community empowerment.Continue reading “Cowards of the County: They Broke It, You’re Paying”

COWARDS OF THE COUNTY

How Shropshire’s Officers Lost the Plot, the Councillors Lost Their Nerve, and the Taxpayer Lost Everything Else There comes a point in every county’s slow slide into farce when you realise the people running the show are not merely incompetent — they’re proud of it. That point, in Shropshire, arrived some time between: 1. ShropshireContinue reading “COWARDS OF THE COUNTY”

Commissioner Watch (2): The Commissioner’s Purse

If money talks, then in West Mercia it positively shouts. The Police and Crime Commissioner’s office costs a fortune — and for what? Let’s count the purse strings. The Quarter-Million Pound Question Here’s the top of the food chain — the first dip into your council tax purse: • Gareth Boulton – Chief Executive –Continue reading “Commissioner Watch (2): The Commissioner’s Purse”

Smithfield Hotel: 22 Beds, One Big Red Flag

Once upon a pandemic, the government—bless their optimistic hearts—decided that handing out billions in Bounce Back Loans on the basis of nothing more than good intentions and a mildly convincing email address was a fine idea. And lo! A thousand pop-up “businesses” were born, many with names as imaginative as “ABC 2020 Ltd” or—wait forContinue reading “Smithfield Hotel: 22 Beds, One Big Red Flag”

Oswestry for Lease

How the Lib Dems Turned a Market Town into a Migrant Hostel Once upon a time, Oswestry was a market town—now it’s a market brand, traded like a cheap stock among absentee landlords and watched over by a Liberal Democrat hierarchy so detached you’d think they were governing by astral projection. We used to beContinue reading “Oswestry for Lease”

From Market Town to Migrant Dump: The Great Oswestry Betrayal

Welcome to Oswestry, once a proud market town — now the showroom floor for Britain’s finest scams, deceptively registered developers, and councillors so neutral they could be used in a pH test. This isn’t satire. It’s Shropshire Council and Oswestry Town Council in action — or more accurately, inaction. And like all modern policy disasters,Continue reading “From Market Town to Migrant Dump: The Great Oswestry Betrayal”