OUR council structures are no longer fit for purpose. It is time for radical change.

Shropshire Council is consulting on hikes in car parking charges in Ludlow. It’s a scheme designed for Shrewsbury. We have got used to poor decisions about our town being made by remote bureaucrats in Shirehall. But that doesn’t mean we should put up with it.

Shropshire Council should establish well-funded and powerful area committees to deliver local decisions and scrutinise how well the council is serving all parts of the county.

We also have local issues with council structures in Ludlow. Most of our housing development is set to take place in Ludford parish. More than 400 homes are being planned outside the town boundary. I would not be surprised if more than 1,000 homes are built on the outskirts of Ludlow in the coming decades.

This growth will stretch Ludlow’s services.

The residents moving into these homes will pay a parish precept of just £16 a year (at current average rates). None of this will go towards supporting services in Ludlow. That bill will have to be picked up by Ludlow residents. They must pay £133 a year to support local services that Ludford residents will rely on. That can’t be fair.

Several years ago, I wrote to this newspaper calling for a carefully planned garden suburb between Rocks Green and Sheet village. What we are getting instead is incoherent, unplanned development.

Ludlow Town Council can’t plan developments outside its borders. Neither can it plan growth of services when it doesn’t get income from Ludford homes. The only solution is for Ludford and Ludlow councils to merge.