Latest news with #WhitchurchTownCouncil
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ex-Apprentice fired up for councillor role
Two years after being fired from The Apprentice, a 25-year-old military history enthusiast has started a new role as a Shropshire councillor. Gregory Ebbs won a seat on Shropshire Council as a Liberal Democrat in May's election by nine votes and said afterwards: "It was on a knife-edge." Lord Sugar showed him the door in week three of the BBC show, after a bad cartoon led to his team losing the task, and he said he feared the people of Whitchurch might cast him out too. "I didn't sleep the night before and was sweating like mad," he said. In the end he received 392 votes out of a total of 1,039, narrowly beating a Reform UK candidate. The Lib Dems swept to power on Shropshire Council in the elections, replacing a Conservative administration which had run the unitary authority since it was created in 2009. Mr Ebbs said his aim was to build on his vote in future elections and added it was the aim of the Lib Dems to prove they could "get things done" and sort out a range of issues. Away from politics, he runs an antique shop in Whitchurch and also tours schools, giving talks with a collection of historical artefacts which he said he started acquiring as a boy. He has lived in Wales, Poland, Thailand and Malta, where he said he got his nickname "the cannon man" because he was employed as a cannon-firer. Mr Ebbs returned to the UK during the coronavirus pandemic and was elected to Whitchurch Town Council. He remains one of the youngest councillors in the county. When he appeared on series 17 of The Apprentice, he said he believed his best qualities were thinking outside the box and his "diverse experiences in different fields". This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. Lib Dems choose leadership team for authority Lib Dems win control of Shropshire Council Five takeaways from Shropshire Council elections Recounts and random chance - an election in numbers Shropshire Council Whitchurch Town Council
BBC News
05-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Council in £4m bid to reopen Whitchurch Civic Centre shut by Raac
A council has proposed spending up to £4m to reopen a community centre which was closed after the discovery of potentially dangerous concrete. Whitchurch Civic Centre has been closed since September 2023, after specialist engineers found reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) throughout the building. Shropshire Council, which owns the site, said the money would be spent installing a new roof and carrying out other repairs, although it hoped more money could be found from other sources to have the centre of Whitchurch Andy Hall said he hoped further investment could be found to pay for a rebuild, although he was not aware of any external funding in the pipeline. 'Ageing building' Council leaders will be asked at a cabinet meeting on 12 February to approve the £4m funding and to also agree to an urgent "needs analysis" so the building can be reconfigured to meet the needs of the a consultation held last year, a working group made up of local councillors and officers was set up to consider the building's future. It carried out a feasibility study into the two most popular options – to either repair or replace the work has also included looking at how the centre can be economically and efficiently run and managed in the future by Whitchurch Town Council. Mr Hall said: "At the moment we can't identify any money from central government or elsewhere. "But the civic centre is an ageing building, built on Victorian foundations, and some people will ask why Shropshire Council would spend £4m on a roof when you could rebuild it for £6m to £7m."The sports and market hall have remained open and are not impacted by Carroll, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for housing and assets, said: "We know the importance of the civic centre to Whitchurch and to people who live in and around the town. "We're proposing to identify £4m of capital funding to help bring the centre back into use – whether this means a new roof or a complete rebuild will then depend on whether the working group and external partners can secure the additional government or other external funding that a rebuild would require." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
