Shropshire nation's kindest county - official
We've known it for years but now it's finally official. Shropshire is the country's kindest county - and we love living in our towns and villages.
We've known it for years but now it's finally official. Shropshire is the country's kindest county - and we love living in our towns and villages.
New Government statistics that have been released today reveal Shropshire is the most altruistic county in the nation with one in three of us regularly helping out with good causes. But the figures also point to some social tension in Telford and Wrekin.
They show more than one in four people in the borough believe people from different backgrounds do not get on well.
The statistics, released by the Department for Communities and Local Government, show 27.1 per cent feel it is an issue.
This compares to a massive 83.6 per cent of the population across the rest of Shropshire who do not think it is a problem.
Some 42.3 per cent of those living in Telford and Wrekin also do not feel they belong to their immediate neighbourhood.
But in Shropshire 71 per cent of those questioned said they feel a real part of their communities - the highest in the country. Perceived anti-social behaviour is a big issue in Telford where one in five people think it is a problem, compared to just 15 per cent elsewhere.
The figures also portray Salopians as the most altruistic in the country with a third (32.2 per cent) of people saying they had volunteered their services to a cause at least once a month during the past year, including 23.6 per cent in Telford and Wrekin.
Nationally, community spirit in England appears to be strong, with 84 per cent agreeing that people from different backgrounds get on well together and 77 per cent having a strong sense of belonging to their immediate neighbourhood.
The percentage of people who trust their council is high at 61 per cent and has been rising since 2001.
However, the survey also shows that four out of five people feel powerless to influence national decisions and two out of three feel unable to change things locally. And the Tories attacked Labour for presiding over a "broken Britain".
Shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman said: "This is a damning indictment of how the Labour Government has transferred power to unelected quangos like the Regional Development Agencies, Regional Assemblies and Infrastructure Planning Commission."
Communities Secretary John Denham said the data challenged the notion that Britain is broken.
