From Friday 13 May 2011 customers have been able to call a single number – 0345 678 9044 – for help and access to the council’s adult social care services.   

The number is the first port of call for new customers who need social care support. 

All calls are dealt with sensitively and in the strictest of confidence by a friendly and dedicated team of advisers at Shropshire Council’s customer service centre, who ensure customers get the right help and support as quickly and easily as possible.  They can identify whether someone is eligible for a service at first point of contact, and signpost individuals to other relevant services within the council. 

The team deals with requests for services for people with sensory impairment, a physical disability, a learning disability, and older people. 

Ann Hartley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for adult social care, said:

“We want to ensure that services are being delivered in the best way possible, and this single number is designed to give a consistent and efficient response to those seeking information and advice about adult social care for the first time. 

“People in need of social care support can be reassured in receiving a comprehensive, convenient service that responds to their needs as quickly as possible.”

Tina Woodward, deputy Cabinet member responsible for customer care, said:

“I am really pleased that our dedicated team of advisers has been able to help thousands of people since the number was launched. 

“The improved service means that customers no longer need to call different numbers across the county.  Having one clear point of telephone contact for adults who require help, support or advice about social care makes it easier for customers to access the services they need.” 

People who already receive social care support from the council can still call their local social care team.  

If you or someone you know requires help, support or advice about social care for the first time, then call the First Point of Contact number on 0345 678 9044.  The Minicom number is 01743 210318. 

Telephone lines are open between: 

• Mondays: 8am to 6pm
• Tuesdays: 8am to 6pm
• Wednesdays: 8am to 6pm
• Thursdays: 8am to 6pm
• Fridays: 8am to 6pm
• Saturdays: 9am to 1pm. 

Closed on Bank Holidays. 

For emergency calls, customers can still call the out of hours service on 0345 678 9040.

Around 150 people attended; the majority from businesses across the county putting their ideas forward to help shape and grow Shropshire’s economy.  The summit was organised by Shropshire Council, with workshops so every business in attendance could have their say.

Shropshire Council was keen to hear suggestions from businesses about how they can work together to make things happen.  Also, a key part of the evening was to identify the most important opportunities for growth in the Shropshire economy, what drag factors are holding back that growth, and what can be done to overcome these.

Keith Barrow, Shropshire Council’s leader, said:

“This was a fantastic event, packed full of positive energy and passion.  Last night was just the start of what we all hope will be a joint enterprise to boost growth in the Shropshire economy.

“Working with local businesses is vital if we want to see the county’s economy grow and prosper, especially in the current economic climate.”

Following the summit there will be similar engagement events with the community and voluntary sector and with the Shropshire Leaders Board.  All the ideas generated will then be formed into an economic growth strategy for Shropshire.

On the agenda at this meeting is another opportunity to hear an overview of information on the preferred options consultation on potential development site allocations for Preston Street, London Road, Longden Road and Mousecroft Lane.  There will also be information on the Shrewsbury south sustainable urban extension along Oteley Road.   Dave Wallace will be on hand to update and answer questions. 

Also on the agenda will be updates from the local policing team, along with a chance for residents to raise points in public question time.

The exhibition on the London Road highway improvements consultation will also be available to view.  The consultation is still open and people are encouraged to come and give their views on the proposals. 

Shropshire Councillor Mike Owen, Chair of the LJC committee, said:

“I encourage people to come along to the meeting as it offers a great opportunity to find out and share information on important matters for the Meole, Sutton and Column LJC area.” 

For more information contact Lucy Roberts, community action officer, on 01743 252328.

Matthew will be leading a one day ‘Introduction to Straw-Bale Building’ course at Acton Scott Historic Working Farm on Sunday 20 May from 10am to 4pm.  He will be sharing his experience of his own building project through a mix of presentation and practical demonstration.  

During the day course participants will be taken through a basic straw build from footings to roof, with opportunities for some hands on experience of modifying bales and applying lime render.

There will be opportunities to discuss options for design, costs, pitfalls, finishes, roofing and maintenance.  In fact, everything you need to know to inspire you to think about your own project. The course will be limited to a small number, so there will be plenty of time to ask questions and learn from Matthew’s often hard-won knowledge. Wear old clothes and bring a pair of rubber gloves if you want to take part in the practical demonstrations that will take place throughout the day.

Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for tourism and culture, said:

“This is a wonderful fun opportunity to learn about how to build with straw-bales, and shows once again the variety of intriguing courses and activities offered at our award-winning historic working farm.  I would encourage anyone interested to book now.”

A whole host of other courses are also on offer.  Phone Acton Scott if you would like to know more about this opportunity, or to book a place, on 01694 781307.

Shropshire Council is committed to tackling discrimination in the community, and is determined to tackle discrimination within the workplace, and in those organisations that deliver services on our behalf. 

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) is an opportunity for individuals and organisations to stand up against homophobia and transphobia, and is designed to raise awareness of the impact of prejudice and discrimination on the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people throughout the world, and also on the lives of their families, friends and colleagues.

This year’s theme is ‘Sexual diversity in the workplace – It pays off’.  The goal of the campaign is to point out the positive aspects of sexual diversity in the workplace as well as its benefits for employers, companies, institutions and workers alike.

Shropshire Council supports the Shropshire LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Network group, which meets quarterly in and around Shrewsbury.  Groups and campaigns which the network supports include:

• Homophobia in Education Steering Group - supporting Shropshire’s schools to deal with homophobic bullying
• Are You Being Served -a group putting together research in to the needs of LGB people who use agencies in Shropshire
• LGBT History Month – putting together an event/information with the library service and archives service each February)
• Rainbow Film Festival – an annual week of LGBT films in Shrewsbury, plus other events
• Shropshire Unison LGBT group – support group for LGBT union members with an annual conference
• Equalities Forum – networking with groups/people from equality and diversity groups within Shropshire Partnership, meets quarterly.

Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for equalities, said:

“Shropshire Council fully supports this day and continues to lead the equality agenda.  Homophobia affects and destroys many lives from young to old and should not be accepted in any society.    

“We also continue to support the multi-agency initiative to tackle hate crime in Shropshire ‘We Won’t Tolerate It’, and want to encourage people from the lesbian, gay and bisexual communities to come forward and report all homophobic incidents so that appropriate support can be provided to the victims, and perpetrators dealt with.   All incidents are dealt with using complete confidentiality.

“Please join us on this important date to pledge a commitment to tackle homophobia and transphobia and promote LGBT equality for your staff, service users and customers.”

Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for schools, said:

“We believe children and young people should be able to enjoy their childhood and are prepared for adult life in a safe and prejudice free environment.  Our Homophobia in Education Steering Group help to equip our schools to deal with homophobic bullying by addressing and correcting ill-informed views, ignorance and bigotry.

“All secondary schools in Shropshire have been given a free copy of the ‘Some People Are Gay – Get Over It!’ DVD produced in partnership by Shropshire Archives and William Brookes School.  The DVD provides schools and youth groups in Shropshire with a valuable tool to help them tackle prejudice and homophobic bullying.”

If you or someone you know is suffering abuse because of your sexuality, please contact the Police Hate Incident Reporting Line  on 0300 333 3000 or the police non-emergency number 101, or click here where you will find the locations of the various reporting sites across Shropshire.

For more information about the Shropshire LGB network please contact iran.morris@shropshire.gov.uk or yvonne.hariss-daniels@shropshire.gov.uk.

Local Shropshire Councillors Trevor Davies and David Lloyd are expecting to be there to listen to what people have to say, and the two councillors have already been involved in a similar event held for Selattyn community in June 2011.

Trevor Davies, one of the Shropshire Councillors for the area, said:

“Previous events, including the one at Selattyn, have seen young people aged 11 taking part with their parents, right through to people in their 90s, and it would be really good to have a mix of perspectives from young and old here as well.  I am really pleased that we are having an event for the people of Weston Rhyn parish. 

“The council is very keen to hear from people who may not have been involved in anything before but would be able to give up an evening on this occasion, as well as from people already active in the community who want to share their views.  This will help to ensure that we have the best-quality and most up-to-date information possible about life in the area from the people who know.  The information will help shape how we meet the future needs of all our communities in Weston Rhyn, in partnership with the parish council, who are very much involved.”

People who live in and around any of the various settlements that make up the parish of Weston Rhyn are being invited to put their names forward to share their local knowledge about life in the area at this event.  This includes Bronygarth, Chirk Bank, Craignant, Pentre-newydd, Pont-Faen, Preesgweene, Rhos, Rhoswiel, and Wern, as well as Weston Rhyn itself and any other locations within the parish.

Anyone interested in taking part in the event please contact Lois Dale by 2pm on 26 June 2012, to make a provisional booking, on 01743 255667 or via email  lois.dale@shropshire.gov.uk.  If there are more than 30 people who come forward, names will be drawn from a hat at that point.  Lois Dale will then contact people, and further information will be posted out to participants ahead of the event itself.

The event will start at 7pm and will finish at around 9.45pm, with a midpoint break.  People will be mixed up into group discussion tables depending on their ages and interests and where they are from in the parish, in order to share their local knowledge and views with each other, and there will also be a parish councillor on each table.  People will be sent more information ahead of the event, so contact details are also needed for this purpose.

The event will use an interactive toolkit approach, already in use with rural parishes in Shropshire, and based on a set of questions about what makes a community sustainable.  The same questions are asked wherever it is used, so the answers can be used as a guideline for planning priorities and community priorities in that area.

People will also be asked to give their views on what community benefits might be important to the area, and help their community develop and thrive in the future.  The results on the day will be an improved evidence base about the local area, and a visual snapshot of the community arrived at using a colour wheel.

Large black steel containers have now been placed at the following locations: 

• Albrighton – Crown Car Park
• Bishop’s Castle – Crowgate
• Bridgnorth – Innage Lane
• Cosford – RAF Sports Stadium
• Ellesmere – Talbot Street Car Park
• Ludlow – South Shropshire Leisure Centre
• Minsterley – Parish Hall, Callow Cresent
• Oswestry – Morrisons Car Park, Oswald Road
• Prees – Church Street Car Park
• Shrewsbury – Morrisons, Harlescott
• Shrewsbury – Sainsbury’s, Meole Brace
• Shrewsbury – Asda, Old Potts Way
• Shrewsbury – Shirehall Car Park
• Shrewsbury – Guildhall – Frankwell Car Park
• Shrewsbury – The Red Barn, London Road
• St Martins – Stans Store, Overton Road 

These are just the first 16 of many to be placed around the county; to see the latest locations people can click here.

Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for recycling, said:

“We are hoping that the new banks will make it even easier for people to recycle small electrical items such as toasters, kettles, hair dryers, radios, toys and remote controls.  These items can already be recycled at the main Household Recycling Centres, but by installing more local and convenient drop off points we hope that even more people will choose to recycle which helps the environment and reduces the cost to taxpayers of ever rising landfill costs.” 

The new Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) banks are provided for the council at no charge by national producer compliance scheme Veolia, as part of their new contract to recycle all electrical items on behalf of Shropshire Council.  

The banks are clearly marked with a list of items which they accept.  This includes any small electrical items such as remote controls, hairdryers, hair straighteners, shavers, kettles, VCRs, MP3 players, sat navs and drills.  They cannot accept large electrical items such as TVs and fridges (but these can be taken to the larger Household Recycling Centres).

For more information on what can be recycled through these recycling banks, or for advice on disposing of larger items, people can contact the council’s customer services team on 0345 678 9007 or visit www.recycleforshropshire.com 

• Although the overall amount of rubbish we throw away is decreasing year on year the amount of electrical items is increasing
• Waste electrical goods range from hairdryers to washing machines and make up the fastest growing waste stream in the UK  
• Many types of WEEE contain rare and precious metals, which make it especially important not to throw them away
• Some types of WEEE also contain hazardous substances which can cause pollution if they are not recycled properly.
• In one year the amount of electrical waste we create in the UK would fill the new Wembley 6 times
• That’s more than 1,000,000 tonnes every year across the UK 
• So to reduce the amount of electrical items going to landfill the EU agreed a Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) 
• This requires electronics producers to fund recycling schemes for WEEE at no expense to the taxpayer 
• All WEEE collected in the banks will be taken to Overton Recycling in Stourbridge for dismantling to recover metals, plastics and glass.

Shropshire Council has been talking to town and parish councils over the past couple of years about which sites in their area may be suitable for development, and the proposals are now being discussed.

It’s all part of the Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) policy, which will set out the guidelines for the future development of Shropshire.

The Preferred Options document sets out the potential sites for about 8,000 homes which could be built by 2026, and it’s important that people have a look at the plans to see what’s proposed for their area.  Shropshire as a whole needs about 16,000 new homes by 2026, and these proposals allocate potential sites for around half of that.

The consultation started in early March 2012 and was due to finish in early June, but that has now been extended to 20 July 2012.

The proposals are organised into 18 ‘Place Plan’ areas which cover the whole of the Shropshire Council area, and public meetings are being held in each one.

The next events are as follows:

Tuesday 22 May at Shifnal Village Hall. Drop-in session from 5pm. Public meeting from 7pm to 9pm.

Thursday 24 May at Oswestry Memorial Hall. Drop-in session from 5.30pm to 7pm. Public meeting from 7pm to 9pm.

Thursday 31 May at Red House Village Hall, Albrighton. Public meeting from 7pm to 9pm.

Thursday 31 May at Cleobury Mortimer Parish Hall. Public meeting from 7pm to 9pm.

All the plans can be viewed at shropshire.gov.uk/samdev where there is a questionnaire for each area which forms the official response to the consultation.

You can also get involved by joining the ‘Plan My Shropshire’ Facebook page or calling the council’s customer service centre on 0345 678 9000.  If you don’t have access to a computer or the Internet, you can view the plans at your local library or Broadplace.

Mal Price, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for planning, said:

“These are really important proposals for the future of Shropshire and are the culmination of a lot of discussions with town and parish councils about how much development they would like to see in their area.  There are lots of ways to get involved, and I would urge everyone to look at the preferred sites in their community so they can make their views known.”

Car clubs provide new, fuel-efficient vehicles which are available to members for personal or business use.  Members pay a fee to join and are charged for the journeys they make.  It has been calculated that people who drive less than 6,000 miles per year could save up to £3,500 by joining a car club. 

Car clubs are running successfully in other parts of the UK, and can help with the problems of parking and congestion.  Shropshire members will be able to use any of the cars in the county, and possibly have access to cars in other areas. 

Bishop’s Castle is one of three towns (along with Ludlow and Shrewsbury) where the first cars will be available later this year, following a successful bid by Shropshire Council to the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.  The Shropshire Car Club will aim to be self-sustaining and expand to other towns in future. 

Simon Jones, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for sustainable transport, said:

“This is a fantastic scheme which I’m sure will get a lot of support from local people.  It is hoped that car clubs will solve parking and congestion issues in these towns, as well as allowing people to have access to a car without the high costs associated with individual car ownership. 

“Our successful bid to the Local Sustainable Transport Fund last year means that we have the funds available to cover the startup costs of such a scheme and, once established, they will be funded through user charges.” 

Charlotte Barnes, Shropshire Councillor for Bishop’s Castle, said:

“I think this is a fantastic idea, especially for those that only need a car every now and then.  At a time when the cost of living is rising all the time, to make the savings that are being spoken about seems wonderful.” 

More information is available at www.shropshirecarclub.co.uk . People are also invited to complete a short survey to give their views, either online or by completing a paper version which is available in libraries, council offices and other outlets in the towns.

Shropshire Council approved proposals to convert 70% of its streetlights to ‘part-night lighting’ in September 2011, meaning they are lit until midnight and then switch themselves off until 5.30am.  Work is due to start on the first lights in the programme in mid-June.

Not every light will be affected, and more than 6,000 lights will remain in dusk to dawn operation.  Since the original proposals were approved last year, a lot of work has taken place involving engineers, the police, and parish and town council representatives, on a risk assessment to decide which lights should be included in the scheme.

It takes 8.7 million kilowatt-hours of power (and 4,750 tonnes of carbon) to run the council’s 18,500 streetlights, illuminated signs and traffic signals every year, which is the same amount of power used by 2,600 homes in a typical year.

Converting 12,500 of these lights to part-night lighting will reduce energy use by 20% – a saving of 1.7 million kilowatt-hours of power and almost 1,000 tonnes of carbon.

Carefully selected lights were switched off between midnight and 5.30am in Church Stretton in October 2011, and following the success of that pilot, the plan is to gradually roll out to the rest of the county over the next three to four years.

A work programme has now been agreed, which will see lights converted as they are maintained by the council’s contractors, Ringway.

The first lights to be converted will be in the areas to the south of Shrewsbury in mid-June, followed by southern Shropshire in July, August and September, and Shrewsbury later in the year.  Other areas of Shrewsbury and Oswestry will then follow during 2013-14, with north Shropshire and Bridgnorth areas planned for 2014-15.

Not all lights will be converted, because some are maintained by town and parish councils, and others are exempt from the scheme because they are close to a busy road junction, near sheltered housing or other safety reasons.  An interactive map is on Shropshire Council’s website which will allow people to enter their postcode and see what lights near them will be changing.

The webpages at shropshire.gov.uk/streetlighting.nsf also include lists of which streets are included in the scheme and how many lights in those streets will be converted.  If you don’t have access to a computer or the Internet you can visit your local library or Broadplace, or call 0345 678 9000 to see if any lights in your street will be changing.

Posters are also being put up in libraries, on parish noticeboards and on lighting columns in streets where changes are taking place.

Simon Jones, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for streetlighting, said:

“We have been discussing these proposals and preparing the plans for a long time now, and I hope people understand the benefits that these changes will have.  We will reduce carbon emissions, save energy costs, cut down on light pollution and help stargazers see the night sky.

“Lots of other areas are already doing this, such as Devon, Powys and Leicestershire, and we have been talking to them about their experiences to make sure we get it right in Shropshire.  We have had detailed discussions with the emergency services and town and parish council representatives about which lights are included in the scheme, and it’s important to remember that every streetlight will still be on until midnight.  A lot of work has gone into the exemption criteria, so things like dangerous road junctions are not included and other factors have being taken into consideration.”

A West Mercia Police spokesperson added:

“A multi-agency group has been involved in these plans from the outset, and local policing teams will of course be monitoring the effects of these changes closely.  However, it should be noted that the evidence from other parts of the country is that crime has actually decreased where lights have been converted to part-night lighting.”

Further notes

The programme for 2012-13 is as follows:

June 2012

Bayston Hill

Minsterley, Westbury and Yockleton

July 2012

Pontesbury and Pontesford, Nesscliffe

Montford Bridge, Atcham, Grafton, Hanwood, Ford, Dorrington

Bowmere Heath, Condover, Cressage, Cross Houses

Bishop’s Castle

Church Stretton

August 2012

Bucknell, Cleobury Mortimer, Burford

Craven Arms, Lydbury North, Middleton, Onibury, Winstantow 

Clee Hill, Clun, Ludlow

September to December 2012

Clee Hill, Clun, Ludlow

north Shrewsbury

January 2013, February 2013

west Shrewsbury

To see which lights are due to be converted street by street, go to shropshire.gov.uk/streetlighting.nsf