Council commits to doubling its Shropshire Local visits to Oswestry

The mobile service gives people the chance to speak to council staff about their problems and visits various towns in the county to enable people to raise issues.

But Ms Leanne Wood, of Brookhouse Road, in the town was shocked at the organisation of the mobile service during last Thursday'svisit of the service to Oswestry Library.

"It's shocking in there," she said. "The majority of people were elderly but they had no system of queuing and people were coming in stressed. Nobody knew who's who and what's what.

"There is no system of appointments and people are treated like cattle.

"There were only two people from the council and one man with a complex issue took an hour and a half. There were five people queuing at the start and it ended up with 20."

The local advice services was only in town from 10am to 2pm.

Ms Wood, who was there to enquire about moving to Shrewsbury, said was told she would have to visit another office in the county town.

She called for volunteers with office skills to be drafted in who could help sort things out, to present a smiling face, and to get an idea who might be able to help them.

"People need to be treated better," she said.

A spokesman for Shropshire Council said they recognised the popularity of the service in Oswestry and would be doubling the number of visits to the town. They won't be adopting a bookings system.

Councillor Rob Gittins, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for culture and digital, said:“The Shropshire Local service is there to support Shropshire residents who would struggle to access services and to help show them wherever possible how they can do business with the council online.

“The nature of what our advisors deal with is very varied and can be complex, and we accept that some service requests might take longer.

“We want our customers to feel able to drop in rather than book formal appointments, especially as many enquiries can be very short in duration.

“We are pleased that the service in Oswestry is proving popular and this has been recognised in our future planning for Shropshire Local mobile."

“Our new schedule which starts soon will see us double the number of visits to Oswestry.”

Find out where you can access Shropshire Local in your community here https://orlo.uk/xn7Ni