Our representative on Shropshire Council is Brendan Mallon, who represents Tern Division. He often attends Parish Council meetings and is always happy to take questions or suggestions on local matters. Councillor Mallon also presents a report to the Parish Council and the contents of the latest one can be found below (please note views expressed in Councillor Mallon's report are not necessarily those of the Parish Council):

County Councillor’s Report to Upton Magna Parish Council – 12th March 2026

Haughmond Hill

The Highways Department will shortly be issuing a consultation with Upton Magna and neighbouring parish councils about the possibility for the issue of a Traffic regulation Order for the application of double yellow lines in the vicinity of Haughmond Hill Forestry England site.

BESS

As well as the extension of the consultation period for this application, this month’s Northern Planning Committee meeting has been cancelled due to lack of applications that require the committee’s scrutiny.  At the very least, the applicant is not hurrying this process along.

Shrewsbury Station Gyratory

There is no resolution to this predicament as yet. However, I have seen a recent letter from Shropshire Fire and Rescue to the Council in the wake of the recent tragic fire. They state that they were able to respond to this incident quickly, due to it being later on at night, but this would have not been possible during the current daytime traffic conditions in the Gyratory, emphasising the necessity of a practical solution.  We will continue to push for such a solution at Committee and in Council.

The Future of Shirehall

After a successful ‘Task and Finish’ investigation into future options for Shirehall, the report was discussed at Full Council last week.  The risks and costs of demolition and redevelopment were highlighted and any decision will be deferred, pending future analysis of the site’s potential and the viability of refurbishment, amongst many other factors.  The council has appointed an expert from the LGA to provide independent external assessment of the relative options and their costs.  It is vital that the best value solution is arrived at methodically.

8.99% Council Tax Rise and Exceptional Financial Support

You by now be aware of the unprecedented 8.99% council tax rise announced at last week’s Full Council, as well as the grant of Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) of £192.8 million over this and next financial years.  The EFS is a loan and thus the repayments will be an extra burden on taxpayers in coming years on top of the 8.99% which will of course compound over subsequent tax rises.  While there is broad cross-party agreement that this was very much the fault of the previous administration and some of my Council colleagues and I voiced concern that more was not being done to improve income through collection of arrears and cut costs through better fraud investigation and the possibility of suspending or deferring some Net Zero measures.  We identified at least £10 million in decarbonisation costs in the current financial year.  That is over £90 on the average Council Tax bill or roughly half of the 8.99% increase.  Other UK councils have done exactly this, yet when I raised the motion, the debate was quickly shut down.  We have also emphasised the potentially high cost of demolition of Shirehall if the Council pursues the option to clear and develop the site.

Battlefield Housing Development

This proposed 570 house development, along with the recently deferred application for 450 houses on Ellesmere Road is causing deep concern for County Councillors around North Shrewsbury.  The traffic flows around this area and particularly the A49 are already heavily congested at rush hour and this plan in particular will put hundreds more cars straight into the choke point between Battlefield and Sundorne roundabouts.  I am working with my colleagues representing these areas to comprehend what mitigations, if any, can be made for the many traffic, road safety and ‘active travel’ issues that would result from such a development, particularly in light of the cancellation of the North-West Relief Road at the last Full Council meeting.

Brendan Mallon

Councillor for Tern