IF WE’RE really serious about wanting town centres like Oswestry’s to survive and thrive – and want to counter out-of-town shopping – then there’s one solution that’s simply too sensible to be true: just make town-centre car parking free! You then have the choice of making up the cash shortfall another way or to take the reduced income on the chin.

In the town centre versus out-of-town shopping battle, the convenience of loading up with heavy goods and parking free is paramount. This argument could even be the first challenge for the soon-to-be-appointed new manager of the Oswestry’s BID project. It wants to tax all the town’s businesses 1.75 per cent of their business rates to finance the town’s growth. Well, council members and Oswestry, the ball’s in your court. Are you up for it?

Glorious stay at hall

SO GLAD I went on impulse to a summer fayre at Bryngwyn Hall, nestling between Llansantffraid and Llanfyllin at Bwlch-y-Cibau ,as I discovered a Mini Switzerland!

The hall, home to former Sotheby’s fine art consultant Auriol, Lady Linlithgow, is completely surrounded by typical Mid Walian hills. It’s in a tranquil and glorious setting, complete with large lake, magnificent gardens and rare trees.

And the two-day fayre? It was brilliantly supported by local artisans, wonderfully signposted and a delight to discover, in such a swish – or Swiss – setting!

Master craftsman

YOU enter another world when you visit horologist Graham Parker in his Llangedwyn Craft Centre Studio B shop. Approaching 80, there’s little in the clock and watch world Graham doesn’t know. He specialises in the most intricate of timing movements and often has to make his own spares.

He completes repairs, surrounded by a selection of the most beautiful pendulum clocks, which he now wants to sell off before finally packing in.

The apprentice

SKILLED Pant carpenter Ken Williams is also looking to retire in a year or two – and has a fun memory of his teenage start. As a 16-year-old apprentice, he was told to partition off a coal yard in Birmingham. “It was hard work and very dusty,” he told me.

But at the end of a long, dirty day, a shock awaited. “When I got home even my own parents didn’t recognise me,” revealed Ken, as his black face was sporting only two pink circles where his eyes were!

Corbyn’s view

SURELY no amount of public consultation will convince most of us that reducing two grossly-overworked A&E departments to one makes any sense at all, in a county the size of Shropshire.

Now Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has added his two-pennyworth, stressing “a single A&E won’t meet the needs of the people of Shropshire”.

And his mini outburst came as the Future Fit ‘consultation’ hadn’t even reached its halfway stage!