Lib Dems preparing to take the reins after sweeping to power

Senior Lib Dems say town and parish councils could take on more powers from Shropshire as part of their ‘devolution agenda’ as they repeated their sweep to power at the lower levels of local Government.

Party leaders were celebrating the capture of both Shrewsbury and Oswestry town councils at vote counts on Saturday following their stunning victories in overturning the Conservatives at Shropshire Council at Thursday’s local elections.

The Lib Dems took 10 of the 17 seats in Shrewsbury and 17 of 18 in Oswestry in results confirmed at Shrewsbury Sports Village.

Both town councils already take responsibility for some services from Shropshire, including street cleaning.

And party leaders who took Shrewsbury from being a Labour majority party council to full Lib Dem control, and near total dominance in Oswestry, are now in a position to do more of that kind of devolution.

Leading Lib Dem, Councillor Rob Wilson, the leader of the party on Shrewsbury Town Council going into the elections, says the town council could “potentially take on more”.

“The town council is less political and we run things for the benefit of Shrewsbury,” he said.

“We are prepared to think about it.”

Councillor Wilson held on to his Copthone seat in Shrewsbury with an unassailable 943 votes, and 55.47 per cent of the total in his area. He also held on to his Shropshire Council seat at Friday’s count.

Councillor Wilson said his party had disagreements about policies but they are “always in private” and they come to a “compromise”.

“It is grown up politics, and leads to healthier decisions.”

Councillor Wilson said he was “relieved” that Shropshire held off Nigel Farage’s Reform UK candidates.

Reform took one seat in Battlefield where Harry Hancock-Davies repeated his Shropshire victory in the same Shrewsbury Town Council seat.

But Mandy Duncan failed to repeat her Reform UK Shropshire Council victory in the Sundorne ward where she won by a single vote on Friday.

The ward went to a recount on Saturday where she ended up losing by two votes to Labour’s Kevin Pardy.

Councillor Pardy, who is recovering from illness, was unable to campaign for the election and his colleagues stepped in to help. They celebrated what was a consolation.

Keir Starmer’s party has been reduced to four seats after Pardy, town council group leader Alan Moseley, Shropshire leader Rosemary Dartnall and

Kate Halliday also held on to their seats on Shrewsbury Town Council. All Labour’s other candidates were defeated.

Councillor Dartnall said she thought her party had been affected after making “unpopular decisions” in Government.

“We inherited a system with services on their knees,” she said. “They have had to reset the fundamentals and make some unpopular decisions.”

But she said there is “no doubt that the Government is doing excellent work including on helping tenants.

“We are putting the fundamentals right but the message is not getting out to the public.”

Councillor Dartnall said her reduced party’s role is now about “holding the two largest parties to account” meaning the Lib Dems and Reform UK.

“We have to make sure these promises they made to the voters are fulfilled by scrutinising them.”

She added: “The Lib Dems said they were going to stop the cuts but we don’t know how they will do that.”

The Green party won two seats at Shrewsbury Town Council with both securing more than 50 per cent of the votes.

Emma Micklewright took the Radbrook ward with 754 votes and Julian Dean held on for another four years in Porthill. He secured 800 votes and 54.05 per cent of the total.

Councillor Dean said he hoped the “co-operative” nature of Shrewsbury Town Council could continue into the new term.

He agrees with the devolution agenda of running more services at town council level.

“Shrewsbury Town Council will have to continue to step up and take on more but we do have a small team and perhaps the model could roll oput to other towns and parishes,” he said.

He thought that ‘perhaps’ the town could take on running the museum and other cultural activities.

“I worry that the Lib Dems did not have a vision going in to the elections but I am hoping that the localisation agenda is something.

“It is about looking after your local place.”

The Conservatives now have no councillors at all in either Shrewsbury or Oswestry town councils.

The best the blue party did in the county town was Freddie John Anderson’s 335 votes and 25.07 per cent of the vote in second place to Labour Councillor Dartnall in Shrewsbury’s Column ward.

Tory Les Maguire, who lost his seat in Oswestry’s Cabin Lane ward, blamed ‘national issues’ for affecting his party’s vote.

The party has now gone from having MPs in North Shropshire, and Shrewsbury, plus control of Shropshire Council and Shrewsbury and Oswestry town councils, to receiving 2,112 votes in all the contested lower tier elections.

That 4.3 per cent of the vote across contested town and parish councils leaves them in bottom place at that level of local government in the county.

The party received a total of 20,118 votes (19.89 per cent) in the elections to Shropshire Council where they in contrast fielded candiates in all unitary authority seats.

In the town and parish councils as a whole in contested seats the break down of votes per party was:

[No political affiliation given]: 15,318 votes (33.57 per cent)

Conservative: 2,112 votes (4.63 per cent)

Green: 4,782 votes (10.48 per cent)

Independent: 1,425 votes (3.12 per cent)

Labour: 4,434 votes (9.72 per cent)

Labour and Cooperative: 138 votes (0.3 per cent)

Liberal Democrats: 13,151 votes (28.82 per cent)

Reform UK: 4,275 votes (9.37 per cent)

Total of all votes at town and parish council levels across Shropshire: 45,635