The Future Fit programme has lurched , suddenly back into life with the announcement today that the Urgent Care Centres

and a new A&E funding has been granted £300 million - subject to the consultation. As soon as that is ready I urge you all to take part in that. I will circulate it. This is very good news as our acute hospitals really cannot continue as they are.

You will all have had your Council tax demands dropping through your door by the time you read this! - You will have seen that Shropshire Council has raised its Council tax by 6% - 3% of which, equating to approx £3.9M, was to prop up the adult social care budget, a budget which is facing growth in expenditure to meet extra demand, due in most part to our growing elderly population, of between £8 - £10M a year. Longer term the Council is currently going to be a further £59M short of balancing its budgets by 2020. Ten years ago of course around 50% of the Councils money came from the Government but by 2020 this will have reduced to nothing, leaving Shropshire along with other Councils to find its funding in other ways. This year the Government has, to its credit, given the Council £2.28M more than it was first going to but that's only half of the £5m the Council has taken out of its roads maintenance budget alone for the next financial year 2018/19 (and plans to cut another £5m from roads again in 2019/20!) , not to mention the £9m we have had to take from reserves to balance the budget this year which has followed a complete freeze on all spending except for statutory services & emergencies until the new financial year starts in April - as yet I have not heard whether this freeze on spending will be lifted but given the significant reductions in budgets across the board I am not sure it would change anything if it was! All of the above could be helped by the Government changing the way government funds local authorities - in the coming financial year the Conservative government will be spending £1,042 per head on the population in London, £788 on residents of Metropolitan areas whilst only spending £754 per head on Shropshire re

Shropshire Council's method of collecting plastic waste and the way it leaves plastic scattered all over the countryside has raised the ire of residents in the west of the county.

Heather said:

" Following on from the recent outcry in the media over plastic in the oceans following Blue Planet 2, a number of colleagues and I have received a growing number of complaints about the way that Shropshire Council collects plastic waste for recycling. Other councils provide some form of cover for the plastic box (either a lid or a net as in Powys) to prevent plastic items blowing away but not Shropshire. If you have and sort of breeze on collection day it results is plastic being blown all over the place.

The NHS crisis is worsening.

The latest figures show that hospitals are facing the highest pressures so far this winter.

16,900 patients faced waits of half-an-hour or more in ambulances outside A&E in the week to 31st December, 4,700 of them delays of over 60 minutes. These are the worst figures for ambulance delays for a single week so far this winter.

There are very few people can say 2017 went exactly the way they wanted it to. Looking forward to 2018 it's clear that we have a lot of work to do.

In 2018, we will continue to stand up for our values.

We will offer people the choice of an Exit from Brexit. We have a big opportunity to win a real cash injection for the NHS. And we have a big opportunity to win the argument for thousands more affordable homes.

Councillors in the West of the County have expressed concern about the numbers of social housing being sold off by South Shropshire Housing Association* in their very

rural communities.

Shropshire Councillor for Clun, Nigel Hartin, said: " I am really concerned about recent developments. I have been told that the Association is going to sell off a row of houses between Betws y Crwyn and

Shropshire Affordable housing Campaigner Cllr Heather Kidd has condemned the Chancellor's housing measures as 'woefully inadequate' and 'urban-centric', doing next to nothing for rural areas like Shropshire.

Heather Kidd Shropshire Councillor for Chirbury and Worthen, said: "The Chancellor has very little grip on housing policy and none on the desperate need for affordable housing to buy and rent in rural areas like ours.

Shropshire Council have decided to send our Youth Funding to the large towns, unless we stop them!

Shropshire council have decided that we have such a low need for youth funding in our area that they are planning to reduced it to zero. ZERO. You can have your say on this, and you absolutely should! If you live in these divisions Bishop's Castle, Chirbury, Worthen and Clun this applies to you and your kids.

Dear Editor

There are many women living in Shropshire born on or after 6^th April 1951 who will not qualify for their pensions at the age of 60. The problem is that the Government changed their pension age in 1995 but failed to tell them until it was too late to upgrade their pensions. Many are now facing considerable hardship.

Shropshire Councillor Heather Kidd has hit out at Shropshire Councils continued failure to resurface what many residents describe as the 'worst road in Shropshire.' Indeed just a handful or years ago it was in the top ten worst roads in Shropshire BUT nothing was done to rectify it. Roads such as this are put into a central pot for decision and it does seem that it does not always recognise local problems.