OSWESTRY Town Council will write to the Business Improvement District (BID) to ask what it is doing to support local trade, much to one senior councillor’s dismay.

Councillor Duncan Kerr put forward a motion to create a working party to have discussions with Oswestry BID about a campaign to boost town trade by millions of pounds.

Putting his motion to town council on Wednesday, Cllr Kerr said it was a project that had worked elsewhere in the UK.

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However, while most councillors supported the idea, Cllr Jonathan Upton asked if this work was the ‘getting into the realm of the Future Oswestry Group’.

Cllr Kerr said that as BID is a membership group, it may not have as much community trading involvement.

Cllr James Owen proposed an amendment for not needing the working group, instead suggesting that town clerk Arren Roberts write to the BID to ask them what work is done to boost local trade.

Cllr Kerr replied: “It’s a retrograde step – it needs a face-to-face conversation for something so important and something we all support.

“I urge you not to accept the amendment.”

However, seven councillors voted for the amendment against five who did not support it.

Meanwhile, Natalia Bainbridge – chairman of Oswestry in Bloom – spoke to the meeting to thank councillors for their support.

She talked about In Bloom being a national competition which covers a huge area of the Midlands and for the last two years, Oswestry voted best in town and ‘we should be proud of ourselves’.

She added: “We also did very well in winning Gold in the national competition and were named best large town.

“The structure of the scoring is enlightening as only 40 per cent is horticultural and 60 per cent of the marks is community and environment where we picked up 100 per cent.

“It’s a testament to what the community groups do.

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“We try to create a nice environment for the town which has a knock-on for the town because people want to come to visit and it’s also good for the town working together.

“It’s a sociable thing to do and the praise we receive from people Is nice – it puts Oswestry on the map.”

Mrs Bainbridge then went on to highlight the work that has been done across the year including the competition for gardeners of all ages and also set out what will be happening in 2024.