What effect is strike action having on Shropshire businesses?

Thousands of people across the country were affected by the strike action on Saturday, October 1 – a big day for events which saw many travellers heading down south for the London Marathon.

But back at home, the impact of the strike action was also felt by residents, businesses and events, with no services running at all from Shrewsbury Railway Station.

Beth Heath, organiser of Shrewsbury Oktoberfest said: "It has affected us quite badly. We had loads of people that we had to carry tickets over for next year. We had people coming up from London who couldn't come.

She said that around 200 tickets had to be carried over to next year's event and with an event like Oktoberfest, people want to be able to drink, and so driving is not an option.

This is the second Shropshire Festival which has been affected by the strike action, as the Shrewsbury Food Festival held on the weekend of June 24 and 25 was also impacted.

"At Shrewsbury Food Festival it was a huge issue. Those are days when people are doing leisure activities, drinking and doing tourism stuff that they then can't do," she added.

Beth said that the strike action also had a 'pretty huge' knock-on effect on the businesses in Shrewsbury town centre.

Forthcoming strike action has been planned for next week on Wednesday, October 5, by rail union Aslef in which there will be no services on any route for West Midlands Railway and Transport for Wales services will be running on amended timetables – these trains are expected to be extremely busy.

Royal Mail staff have also planned to strike on dates throughout October – on Thursday 13, Thursday 20 and Tuesday 25 of this month.