Have your say …
Posted April 28, 2010 9:55 am by Newsdesk
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Just heard Oswestry police are to be based in wem, will pressure on new Pcc change this decision that will leave shropshire’s 3rd largest town without a police station?
Hard to accept that a decision like this would be made without preparing the ground – or before the new commissioner has taken office.
Some have voiced concern that our Christmas lights no longer include the “w**king Santa”. No worries, he’s back, near the Post Office.
Thought you might like to know that, after 2 years of running an internet-only business, we recently bucked the retail trend and opened up a secondhand bookshop – Hall of Books – in Oswestry’s award winning Indoor Market. We are the only specialist secondhand bookshop left in the town! We sell secondhand books and sheet music and have over 5,000 items in the shop, 6,000 online and over 25,000 offline! We are happy to bring items to the shop (open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) and can order books for customers as well. We sell everything from modern first edition hardbacks and quality paperbacks to the interesting, unusual and rare; the hard-to-find, collectible and out-of-print…..and a lot more in-between.
Hall of Books: great news! I’ll be there. Best wishes for the future.
Do I take UKIP seriously as what? As a force for change yes, as a political party no. Thats not an easy poll to answer!
It`’s very difficult to take UKIP seriously, but what I do take seriously is that Clegg’s annihilation of the centrist alternative/protest vote for his ill-conceived and personally disastrous moment in the limelight has tilted it so steeply to the right and to a party with no discernible economic or foreign policies, or any vision broad enough to encompass the true scale of economic and social collapse that is beginning to occur. But then Farage is not the only politician so dishonest and lacking in courage as to fail to acknowledge this.
AN OSWESTRY entrepreneur has hit out after misquoted business rates left him with a bill of thousands of pounds.
Darrell Kerr, pictured, says he opened the Cambrian House Emporium in September last year based on figures given to him by an official at Shropshire Council’s Castle View offices.
But when his first bill arrived for the business in December, the amount had gone up by a third.
And when he questioned the figure it was recalculated at almost double the original amount – a figure just shy of £10,000 per annum.
The antiques and collectables business is based in the Grade II listed Cambrian Works buildings off Gobowen Road.
Mr Kerr explained: “I know I did not get the amount in writing but I thought I had covered myself; I have put my own savings into this.”
When he contacted the unitary authority they told him they could not help.
“I contacted the council, tried councillors Martin Bennett and Keith Barrow, and spoke to an officer and they said there is nothing they can do,” he added, “It does not wash well with me. They are just passing the buck. Obviously, there has been a business rate on this building for how many years, so how can it just change?
“I really do not know what to do. It is all because someone in the council said ‘x’ amount and now this,” he added.
Admitting the failure of the business could cost him his home, he said: “I can’t just shut up shop, I have signed a lease with the landlord and if I close he can have my house.
“Plus two lads have set up a coffee business on the mezzanine level using Prince’s Trust money.”
On top of the increasing bill, Mr Kerr has also had to pay for a surveyor to assist with his appeal fight.
He added: “It was a disused, ageing shed and I have done it up.
“It brings tourism in, it has helped with the regeneration of this part of the town.”
Councillor Keith Barrow, Shropshire Council leader said: “Although we collect business rates, we do not control how much they are. The rates are set by the Government’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and these values can go up as well as down depending on the activity being undertaken in the building. Our advice to occupiers is to urge them to discuss their valuations with the VOA.
“However, we fully understand the concerns of business owners. We have supported the Advertizer’s campaign to lower business rates in Oswestry and have written to the Government to make the point that the current system is causing serious problems for businesses.
“It doesn’t make sense to us that business rates effectively penalise enterprising people who want to trade in town centres, when we want to make town centres more vibrant, interesting places to visit,” he added. / source(Oswestry Advertizer)
In last nights Advertizer 21stMay. it was reported about about Mr Kerrs business troubles at his Cambrian Antiques Emporium caused by false information supplied by a council clerk. I noticed our “council leaderi” of the opinion that the council are powerless to help. Not true “council leader”. Try studying clause 69 of the LG localism act.
Rates Information Letter published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), states:
Starting from 1 April 2011, authorities are now able to grant business rates discounts entirely as they see fit within the limits of the primary legislation and European rules on state aid. These new powers can be used to encourage new business and investment, as well as to support local shops or community services.
If Shropshire Council still had a responsible person, such as a chief executive, in charge, instead of an inexperienced ex “interior designer” then maybe the help needed to support a struggling new business would be forthcoming.
(I know you have to be careful as to what you publish, but please try and include the bit about “The council leaders” qualifications to hold the position he has. The fact is he has none, and it should be made clear to the public exactly how the council is being run.Shropshire council has a man not qualified for his job in charge, and if things are allowed to carry on as they are the council will go into melt down, and we all will have to pay through the nose to pick up the pieces.)
What we need is Mary Portas with a couple of TV cameras knocking on doors – then we might see things happen that were previously out of the town’s ‘control’. I refer in particular to her recent visit to Portas town contenders eg Liskeard (in Channel 4 series) where her presence embarrasses councils, landlords, apathetic shop keepers and diva-ish town teams stifled by in-fighting to make things happen.
Your poll is in bad taste, a man has been murdered by two people, there is no excuse, it is not a political point.
We agree and apologise. The poll has been removed.
Oswestry21.com is undergoing changes in its editorial team. Supervision of the site could continue to be patchy until the changes take effect.
The poll was based on a speech made by Boris Johnson in which he said that it was wrong to link the murder of a British soldier with British foreign policy. He went on to say, “The fault lies wholly and exclusively in the warped and deluded mindset of the people who did it,”. I think it is quite justified to ask people whether or not they agree with this. Obviously we have every sympathy with the families of the victims, as we have every sympathy with the innocent victims of the war in Afghanistan.
completely and utterly the wrong time and question to ask. Trying to boil down complex international issues to a silly question in a poll is at best naive and at worst trying to political point score at the expense of a young man murdered by two criminals who chose to go out one day, run a young man down and then hack off his head. Again above you continue to imply there is a justification of murder due to conflicts we are engaged in, shame on you!
On lighter note. I’ve been reliably informed that Charleston the cat has been reunited with his owner .
Concerning Charleston the cat – a happy ending!