Browsing through the paper last night I read a quite bizarre story about two parish council’s in Telford having a bit of a bust-up.

One parish council – the Gorge – is the parish containing the Ironbridge World Heritage Site and all the associated musems.  It suffers from quite severe flooding on a regular basis and a couple of the main roads in the town are sliding into the river.  In the second half of the last century, quite a few buildings – including an entire street – have been lost to the River Severn.

The other parish council – Dawley Hamlets – is the birthplace of the Telford new town.  Telford was originally called Dawley New Town but was renamed shortly after building started.  The parish has such issues to concern itself with as massive housing developments, drink and drugs problems and anti-social behaviour.

So what vitally important topic are they arguing over?  Money?  Police?  Jobs?  Nope.  They are, in fact, arguing over some fields, a handful of houses and a scrapyard.  The village (it might even be a hamlet, it’s that small) of Lightmoor is split over the two parishes and the two are arguing with each other over whether it should be transferred wholesale into one or other of the parishes.

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