Council cuts 'the most terrible thing I've had to do'

5 hours ago

Mark Elliott,BBC Radio Shropshireand

Charlotte Benton,West Midlands

News image — Liberal Democrat Heather Kidd describes the "pain" of having to cut services across the authority

BBC A woman with short grey hair is wearing glasses and a blue and cream blouse and a navy cardigan. The background is blurred but she is standing on the pavement next to a road junction. — Liberal Democrat Heather Kidd describes the "pain" of having to cut services across the authority

The leader of Shropshire Council has described the cuts she has to make as part of the authority's ongoing financial emergency as "the most terrible thing I've ever had to do".

Liberal Democrat Heather Kidd has worked as a local councillor for three decades and took on the authority in May 2025.

With more cuts to come and another council tax rise of more than 5% likely, Kidd said the decisions were "painful" for her.

"All of these decisions are hugely personal to me, and it's not what I wanted to do. I never came in to politics to make these difficult decisions, but what we can do is try and protect the people that need protection and find better ways of doing things for the future," she said.

She added that the impact of her decision-making had increased over her career as the authority was now "in charge of many many vulnerable people".

"With everything we do we look at the mitigation, we look at what else we can do to ensure they are not isolated," Kidd said.

The leader acknowledged the authority was "going in the right direction" and said it was focused on creating a stabilised budget after it had to borrow money from the government to plug the funding gap.

"We asked the government for £121m, we will in fact only have an overdraft of £90m this year, so we've brought it down by £30m and that just saves a lot of money in interest," Kidd said.

She went on to warn that "quite radical" changes were still to come.

Kidd said in August the rise in council tax next year was again likely to be above the usual limit, however speaking to BBC Radio Shropshire, she expressed strong resistance to the figure being above 5% becoming the norm.

"Over my dead body," the leader said.

"I would have a huge fight with government, if we were going to do that," she added.

The government has previously said the amount people pay in Shropshire is low compared to other areas and must rise to help put right the council's financial position.

Kidd said a decision on next year's council tax rise would likely be made in December ahead of the authority's budget in February.

The leader added that the "most radical thing" the council needed to do was to change the way it delivered social care.

She added that other costs the authority had to consider included the future of some of the county's iconic buildings, including Shrewsbury Castle and the town's museum and art gallery, as well as how services such as libraries would continue to operate.

She added that the cost of swimming provision in the county was also up for debate.

The Quarry Swimming and Fitness Centre in Shrewsbury has been deemed "end of life" by the authority for a number of years.

Kidd said the council would need to consider if it could afford to keep all three pools at the centre open and if it would be cheaper to build a new pool in the future rather than pay for repairs.

Previously suspended plans to build a new competition and training pool at Shrewsbury Sports Village, at the cost of £29m, remained off the cards, Kidd said.