|
The letter below is the response from the Rural Parish Council to the decision by OBC to conduct a review. It is reproduced as closely as possible to the original. A brief comment from OBC is appended below: OSWESTRY RURAL PARISH COUNCIL Att. Mr P Shevlin Dear Paul, Review of Oswestry Rural Parish Further to the meeting held on the 19th June and your letter of 23rd June 2006. The Chairman and Cllrs May, Milton and Jones and the Clerk reported to the Council on the 30th June 2006 and the letter from Mr J Davies (sic) and your report C263 were also carefully considered. Please accept this letter as the formal reply from the Oswestry Rural Parish Council. It was agreed that, on the basis of a straw poll taken at a ad hoc meeting in Maesbury that was apparently not well advertised, at which 30 people thought that it might be desirable to have a separate Parish for the Maesbury with Aston Ward, the decision by OBC to review this parish was precipitant. The report, C263 of 18th April 2006 to your committee also appears to be lacking in that it makes no mention of the pending White Paper on the future of Local Government and the role intended for the Parish and Town Councils. The summary offers only two options, it omits the most obvious one--do nothing until the future for local councils is clarified. To the knowledge of the parish council members, no complaints have been received, or heard, that the existing system is neglectful of the Maesbury Area. The interests of Maesbury have always been strongly supported by current members paticularly in respect of sewerage, drainage and flooding issues and meetings are held to a rota to include Maesbury. Although not a certainty, the likelihood that a unitary system will soon replace the current system in Shropshire seems to be generally accepted. The publication of the White Paper referred to above is imminent and until the future for Local Councils is more clearly defined and the Rural Parish Councillors have had time to fully consider its recommendations, they feel unable to comment meaningfully on the review. If the advice coming out is to focus down to the lowest level of community identity, then other areas may well have to consider applying for separate status. If as seems more likely, greater powers and duties are proposed, then smaller units may be forced to group up in a similar way to that current in the Rural Parish. Having given the matter very long and careful consideration, members resolved unanimously that they can offer no further comment at this stage and urge the Borough Council to take no further action at the present time. Yours sincerely, [signed Evelyn Lloyd-Williams] Chairman The above letter was forwarded by Mr. P. Shevlin, Chief Executive, Oswestry Borough Council, on July 17, 2006, with the following comment:
|