Taskforce to look at council engagement with Shropshire communities

A taskforce will be asked to scrutinise how Shropshire Council engages with communities.

Members yesterday agreed to look at a strategy before funding for the community enablement team is withdrawn from April 2019.

The concerns were initially raised jointly by Ludlow and Clee councillors Tracey Huffer, Andy Boddington, Richard Huffer and Vivienne Parry who wanted the chief executive Clive Wright to lead the work.

But ahead to the full council meeting, leader Peter Nutting amended the motion saying he wanted to get members involved.

He said: “You are trying to look back, that it would be good to stay as it is with the community enablement teams and the local joint committees, but it is going to change and it is going to change rural and urban areas in different ways.

“If we get overview to look at it they can come back with how we can do things differently in the future.

“This is a financial process and we need a way of talking to the rural areas and small parishes as well as bigger parishes and town councils, but we shouldn’t look back.”

Cllr Huffer said she could not agree with the amended motion as it stood and requested that rather than look at the “sustainability” of the area, the taskforce be asked to “devise a strategy” reflecting engagement with the “diverse communities across Shropshire”.

The controversial decision to pull the funding from the CET was announced earlier this year because of ongoing council cutbacks, but the portfolio holder, Councillor Joyce Barrow, had said she hoped their work could continue in a reduced form.

The team works closely with organisations, charities and local councils, and are also the leads for Shropshire’s 22 LJCs which are also under review.