| "If we don’t join forces with the rest of Shropshire we'll have much less of a voice." | | Councillor David G Lloyd |
People from all walks of life had their say on 16 November at a generally good-humoured debate held at the Marches School. If you want to speak out about life in the Oswestry area you can contact your councillor any time via the Oswestry Borough Council website.
 | | Panellist David Sear makes a point |
A panel of folk involved in running local health and other services in the Oswestry area were put through their paces by James Bond (no not that one!) from BBC Radio Shropshire. Topics that got people most hot-under-the-collar included whether or not people in Oswestry would be left out in the cold if they don't join forces with the rest of Shropshire to form a unitary authority. Other subjects that got people fired up included the state of the local streets. Lawrence Burton, who is partly responsible for Oswestry's Britain in Bloom gold award this year, said that there are far fewer places in the town nowadays that he'd want to hurry the judges past. But there were calls of agreement when a local resident, Mrs Broadhurst, pointed out that the area around the former Cambrian railway buildings, The Loco's, was a mess. Gordon Burton from Ryton XI Town felt so strongly he got to his feet to ask his question. His grandsons spend too much time in the pub, he said, because they still haven't got the football pitch the borough council promised them some years ago. He wanted to know what is being done about this. The panel promised to look into it and get back to him with an answer. Watch this space! A mother, Sharon Owen, told the panel that she has to travel to Wrexham when her young children hurt themselves because the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Hospital minor injury unit isn't open in the evenings and at weekends. She wanted to know whether the planned new Health Village would offer better facilities.
On behalf of the panel, Laura Browse, who is the Head of Primary Care Commissioning for Shropshire, said that the planned minor injuries unit would be open for the same hours as now, and that it wouldn't be cost effective to stay open overnight. | 
