Oswestry21

The following post has been contributed by a reader called Rebecca who e mailed with her concerns about affordable housing in the county and who invites comment and debate on this issue.

In the last decade, the number of people living alone has increased at an incredible rate in the UK.  Town planning has not adjusted to keep pace with trends.  Although National guidelines have in many instances provided the necessary policy statements to encourage forward thinking and provision of suitable housing at a local level, often at the local level the advice and policy is ignored.

Who’s suffering?

Why are National guidelines being ignored?

Who is ignoring the National policy?

You could ask, is this down to interpretation of the English language and the level of ambiguity that can be found in the way phrases are constructed.  This is very often the case with legal interpretations of the law as anyone having had to use the services of a solicitor knows full well.

A significant piece of the jigsaw to developing good practice in Town planning is about providing choice in the housing market, in order to provide a balanced community, of mixed diversity.  Without it, large sectors of demographic needs are left untouched and ill provided for.

Is this sustainable?

Is this fair?

Is this a deliberate prejudice?

Choice is missing, certainly from a local perspective for the communities in Shropshire particularly, in the North of the county, where the situation is reaching a dire near catastrophe.  The Market Towns of Oswestry, Wem, Ellesmere, Whitchurch and Market Drayton, have not supplied housing suitable for a balanced and mixed community with sustainable housing.

Local net income / house prices;

These two areas are continually compared to assess a local economy and its general affordability for its local inhabitants.  Shropshire is recognised as being in the BOTTOM ten percent of counties in terms of net income per household, and yet house prices in Shropshire are considered to be in the TOP ten percent in the UK. (These figures can be confirmed at the UK National Statistics office or web link:  http://www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp )

When comparing these two figures, Shropshire is stated as being an area designated as not affordable to live in for an increasing number of the local population.  Housing specifically is determined as not affordable by an increasing level of demographic groups.

We need housing of a much wider diversity than has currently been provided, proposed and allowed under the current planning system.  Isn’t it desirable for this County to provide an opportunity for all of its inhabitants to own their own home, regardless of their level of wealth and background?

Local Joint Committee…………. well, what can one say? Firstly the positives: that 25 or so members of the public should turn out to attend on the hottest evening of the year when they could all have been sipping something cool in their gardens is to be applauded. And that George Candler, Assistant Director Culture and Leisure and Arran Roberts, Corporate Performance Officer, both from Shropshire Council gave a sound and capable impression of being likely useful conduits of access to the Shirehall for local issues. Good also to have local police involvement and Community Support Officers present.

As for the rest……. well, the casual alacrity with which a Chairman and Vice Chairman were chosen, without any resort to a show of hands from the public who had bothered to attend served to remind us why there is distance and an uneasy sense of mistrust between elected Town Council members and the populace.

Confused explanation about the make up of the Community Chest, from which grants up to £2k to local projects and organisations are available was somewhat baffling. A sum of £16k was mentioned, and then there seemed to be a further £38k available, but not quite as available as the former figure, but this may have been misunderstood in the oddly explained details. Suggestions coming forward from the Town Council and Shropshire Council representatives as to what to do with the £38k seemed to be concerned with cleaning up paving and more hanging baskets - there seems to be an public impression that such things are already part of the Town Councils remit and come out of council tax payers money as it is. And frankly there is a feeling that if no one never sees yet another hanging basket in town again it would be a blessed relief. Some clarity about the make up and intention of the Community Chest would be welcome.

There was also some difficulty in establishing, from a question from the audience, what exactly is the Town Council’s commitment to the Powis Hall market over the next 10-15 years. A simple question, but one that was left totally unanswered. Instead we were vaguely informed about Town Council advertising of the Powis Hall Market, and when further pressed, councillors admitted that they didn’t know what the advertising budget was, nor exactly how it was spent. When asked how we could find out “680222, 680222″ was shouted from the panel.

There are some issues here about clarity, intention and transparency, which if the Local Joint Committee is going to work well, seem to need to be addressed. While dog fouling and wheelie bins contribute to the concerns of the local electorate, the LoJoCo should not be used as a convenient display of Council “consultation” with their electors by solely dealing with these ever present minor irritants, but should also become a forum for wider issues in which accountability, transparency and a genuine sense of partnership all play a part. It is only in this way that the electorate can feed up issues beyond dog crap and littering in the park to the Shirehall.

Despite these concerns, this could be a useful and productive forum, and another useful method of alerting the Town Council to town issues and of  having Oswestry’s voice heard further up the line in Shirehall.

Incidentally, I phoned “680222″ and enquired about the advertising budget and expenditure for Powis Hall and was put through to the Finance Office, which informed me that year 09-10 the budget is £1k but couldn’t elaborate on how this was being spent as it was too early in the financial year. Year 08-09 the budget was £3848 due to the production of bags advertising the market - which, reportedly, traders had to pay for or contribute towards in some way. Powis Hall has apparently been advertised in the Star, Tizer, local radio and market trade magazines and websites.

It’s a “good thing” that ice cream seller Josh Lentink has got so much support and publicity in the Tizer this week. It’s a “good thing” that we have the Cambrian Heritage Railways endeavouring to open up the line again from Oswestry to Llynclys and beyond, it’s a “good thing” that Powis Hall is about to undergo a makeover having won the Times/Mydeco competition, it’s a “good thing” that we have the 5 acre site/Village Green to make into an attractive, public access space, it’s a “good thing” that we have the Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust and Shropshire Union Canal Society, it’s a “good thing” that we have an annual Food Festival - it is all these and more which all contribute to making Oswestry unique in ways which celebrate it’s history without it being a “precious” town preserved in aspic, and in ways which bring visitors to the town as well as making it a good and interesting place in which to live - and what they all have in common is that they are individuals or groups who have taken it upon themselves to fight for or to create something in which they are passionate.

If the town could see the same passion and belief in Oswestry  coming from the Guildhall and the new Unitary representatives, more true partnership, more transparent exchanges of dialogue, more collective decision making, it would serve to make the town purposeful, even better to live in and visit, and even more unique. If anyone wants to nominate any other aspect of Oswestry as a “good thing” - feel free. The fabric of a town gives people a place to live, work and play, but it’s the people who make the town.

In this new era of Unitary, when Oswestry is amalgamated into North Shropshire, without it’s own Borough Council and with shared status with Ellesmere, Whitchurch, Wem and Market Drayton, it needs to speak up for itself on it’s own terms, with a belief in it’s specific location, history and characteristics - and not allow itself to become another clone town/retail park/empty town centre statistic.

Burgess’s on the industrial estate, with car park……… been for sale for a while…….. medium sized supermarket.

Inchcape’s VW dealership building on Victoria Road, with large car park, currently for sale ……….. cinema.

Just throwing this one in the air as it raises questions about how these kinds of decisions are reached……………….

Why does it not seem possible to utilise existing spaces and resources already integrated with towns imaginatively, thus allowing towns to grow according to real needs instead of  creating spurious and extrapolated needs to justify large scale status development that not only still leaves the resources and spaces empty, but creates more empty space in the process? Is it just lack of imagination and holistic vision? Is it a desperation for perceived status? Is it just a culture of bad planning? It seems that often we have what we need to become what we want - not just in Oswestry…… but in general.

Following an e mail from David Preston expressing concern at the post below, here is an edited version of the response to his e mail. The Mydeco/Times competition result is a win for us all, the town, the market and the Town Council - here’s to a positive process and a great future for the Powis Hall.

Dear David, thank you for your e mail, forwarded to me from the os21 e mail address. I too, as are we all, delighted that the Powis Hall won the Mydeco/Times competition. 

Genuine apologies if my os21.com piece has caused you trouble and inconvenience. I was drawing attention to the fact that signals from the Guildhall relating to Town Council’s support of, and attitude towards, the market have often appeared ambiguous, and in the light of the Town Council’s hosting of NABMA, not always consistent with what forms NABMA’s aims and publicity.

Yes, this is a time of celebration, and I sincerely hope that the town as a community, the market and the Town Council can all work together to make the utmost of this opportunity in the Powis Hall. I truly believe that it is an asset to the town that could be better, busier and brighter, and that decisions about it’s future should not be based upon it’s role in the last 20 years, but on the realistic predictions for the next 20.

I am happy to put something up on the website that suggests we have had this dialogue and which reiterates the sense that this is a win for us all, with a wish for a purposeful process and a welcome outcome for Powis Hall.

With regards…………..

Just to forestall Town Council hijacking this event for their own purposes, some clarification is needed for readers and interested media. This campaign had nothing to do with Oswestry Town Council at any time, though both David Preston and Gail Hollloway have been aware of the nomination and competition from the beginning, with Gail Holloway making a statement at the outset. The competition in The Times came to the notice of Valentine Davis, who passed it on to Mike Coppock, market trader, who then nominated it for inclusion in the competition. The rest was down to people power, leafletting and word of mouth by Wendy from the Gates, Mike, Anne from the petfood stall outside the market, OS21 and many other people using their contacts and e mail address books to spread the word. (Many thanks to all!). Despite Guildhall knowledge and qualified support for the Powis Hall nomination, some Town Councillors have still, in private discussions, been talking of the redevelopment of the Powis Hall while the competition has been running.

In the past, there has been talk emanating from the Guildhall of match funding for improvement of Powis Hall should traders as a group come up with a sum themselves. Doubtless this was in the near certain knowledge that this would prove impossible, thus strengthening Town Council claims of lack of interest in the building in order to justify redevelopment. Now that funding in kind has been achieved, and we will shortly know what that might entail, it will be difficult for the Council to renege on those original proposals for match funding, and, after 1400+ votes cast in favour of a Powis Hall makeover, continued talk of redevelopment would prove rather unpopular, to say the least.

With an internal makeover, more daylight inside, a lift, replacement of the slate hung panels with something more colourful and contemporary and a new treatment to the frontage colonnade at ground level, we would have a pretty damn functional and funky building which the town could feel proud of. The Town Council only seem to see it as a short term financial asset, and not as the economic draw and social asset over long term that the town needs. Talk of a token market presence in the town with a few temporary stalls set up in Cross St. or Red Square do nothing to assuage fears that Oswestry Town Council (hosting the national offices of the National Association of British Market Authorities) don’t really want Oswestry to be a market town at all. And it surely must be the source of some embarrassment to the Town Council, hosting NABMA as it does, that the Powis Hall has to be reliant upon public action and winning a newspaper competition in order to fund improvement. A sad state of affairs indeed.

Note: some factual detail in para.1 edited and corrected Sunday 21st June. Ed.

The results are here. 

We won! 1407 votes to 1356. Something of a nailbiter as we were trailing by over 100 at one point yesterday and level pegging, neck and neck over today. The runner up was Urban Academy Art and Design room in London backed by Ruby Wax, so it was wonderful to see how local people and local media here in the sticks can win against a celeb backed and Twitter powered metropolitan campaign.

Many thanks to Mark at the Tizer & the Shropshire Star for support and coverage and Radio Shropshire and Severn Radio for taking this up in the last day or two and really generating interest and a really big thanks to Mike Coppock at the market for caring enough to nominate Powis Hall for entry. Good work!

Here’s looking forward to seeing Sir Terence Conran and Tara Bernerd up the top of the Bailey with tape measures and colour charts. Great news for town and shows what people power can do.