Call for more public-facing Market Drayton Town Council
One of the independent town councillors who helped topple the town's Conservative majority in last week's elections has called for more regular contact with the public and the police.
Mike Smith is an independent councillor on Market Drayton Town Council and last week he retained his seat as part of a surge of independents – independents now occupy seven of the 12 seats and Conservatives the remaining five.
At the last full elections in 2017, the Conservatives won 11 out of the 12 seats.
Councillor Smith said he has had positive discussions with local police about more regular engagement.
"I spoke face-to-face with [PC] Alan Ambrose and [PCSO] Andy King, I mentioned 'would it be possible to perhaps have a small group of three or four people meet with Alan, perhaps once a month?'
"Alan and Andy were very much up for it, we could meet at the town hall or the police station.
"We could discuss problems or concerns the public report to us and they can feed back any info which could be useful to ourselves. We could also discuss forthcoming events and controls et cetera.
"I have suggested operating town council clinics where members of the public could come and raise concerns we could take back to council. It's all part of groups and services like police and other local groups working together.
"If we are going to make a difference and represent those who voted us in properly we need to improve our methods of communication and understand what people would like to see."
