Town and parish councils could be sitting on 'six figure sums' councillors told
Town and parish councils could be sitting on “six-figure” sums which should be used for vital maintenance jobs, county councillors have said.
Plans to transfer environmental maintenance to town and parish councils will be considered by hard-up Shropshire Council as it ponders further cost saving measures.
The authority’s Economy and Environment Scrutiny Committee say they will investigate the possibility of parish level councils taking on more work such as path clearance and street cleaning, as it seeks to make around £62million of cost savings in the current financial year.
Some councillors at the unitary council believe that parish and town councils can afford to take on extra responsibilities – and say many of them are in better financial shape than Shropshire Council.
“I’ve got very mixed emotions about this,” Councillor Joyce Barrow told a meeting of the scrutiny committee.
