Horrocks Coach Travel based in Lydbury North have told Shropshire Council that from July 22 the following bus services will stop the 773 to Newtown via Clun and Newcastle, which runs on a Tuesday only; the 860 via Much Wenlock to Wellington, on Wednesdays, and the 745 via Clun to Ludlow on Monday, Thursday and Fridays.

The services are not supported by the Shropshire Council, and Horrocks Says the decision to cut them was based on lack of users, making them unviable. A request to the council for subsidies was turned down.

Owner Andy Horrocks said: This is very unfortunate but these routes were not viable without a subsidy.

The council thinks it will pick up passenger numbers for the Shropshire Link, but from our observations mainly elderly people just wont use it.

The council puts a lot of time and effort into the Link and they want it to work.

Councillor Peter Phillips said: We are looking at an extremely thin Level of service remaining for Bishops Castle and even less for other small towns .

And Clun councillor Nigel Hartin said the withdrawal of services was a great blow to the community.

He added:  My impression is that many potential travellers, especially older ones find the thought of arranging a place on the Link service a bit daunting.

In a letter copied to the Journal, Jon Hayes, the councils principal transport officer told Bishops Castle councillor Peter Phillips that Shropshire Council is not in a position to subsidise direct replacements for the services that Horrocks Coach Travel currently provides.

However, I am pleased to confirm that ShropshireLink is available to residents for travel in this area, added Mr Hays.

ShropshireLink currently provides a service on a minimum of two days a week in the areas affected enabling residents to access their nearest market towns.

He added that Shropshire Link was a demand-responsive service. 

Passengers must call 0345 6789068 and give 24 hours notice of where they want to get to  the bus can take them to Craven Arms to meet with the 435 Ludlow  to Shrewsbury service, or into Bishops Castle to link with the 745 Ludlow via Clun service.

The centrepiece of the two-day celebration of Herefordshire produce is a 1940s-themed dance party on Saturday, June 27, with the prestigious ‘Hereford Big Band’ providing the musical entertainment. 

During World War Two, Shobdon played an important role in the war effort with the village’s airfield originally built as the home of an RAF school for glider pilots. Today, it survives as one of the county’s premier leisure facilities. 

Festival organiser, Matt Teale, said: “Despite being a relatively small village, Shobdon has a vibrant leisure industry in which the airfield plays an important part. With 2009 the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings, we thought we’d mark its wartime origins as well as celebrating the food festival’s fifth birthday with a 1940’s dance.”

The event takes place at the festival’s idyllic showground at Shobdon church in the north of the county. Period dress is strongly encouraged on the night and there will also be a display of wartime vehicles and memorabilia throughout the weekend. The £10 entry fee to the dance includes food and a licensed bar. 

Tickets are limited but still available and can be booked by phoning Terry Teale on 01568 708 725 or emailing Terry at shobdonfoodfestival@yahoo.co.uk 

Other attractions across the weekend include more than 50 of the region’s finest food and drink producers with samples of everything from local meats, ciders, liquors and ice creams to the finest coffees, confectionary, pastries, wines and cheeses. 

There will also be cooking demonstrations, bespoke arts, crafts and horticultural exhibits, live music and family entertainment as well as displays of vintage farm vehicles and classic cars.

Entry to the daytime events costs £4 per day with under 11s free of charge. For more information, visit www.shobdonfestival.co.uk.

lIt is the fifth time Shobdon has played host to the food festival and during that time more than £20,000 has been donated to various charities and good causes.

Under the ‘second home’ parliamentary rule, which allows MPs to claim expenses under the Additional Costs Allowance scheme to cover money they have paid out to cover London accommodation associated with their work in the Commons, Mr Wiggin had claimed for a mortgage and expenses on his Herefordshire home near Colwall, Ledbury, on which there was no mortgage.

The MP had initially claimed his expenses against his London home, but soon after he bought the Colwall property in 2004 he used his Herefordshire address on forms he personally submitted to the Commons fees office.

In December 2006 the MP changed the claim form address to his London home after the fees office asked for a bank or building society statement.

After the Daily Telegraph revelation, Mr Wiggin made it clear that claiming for his Colwall home had been “an honest mistake”, that the amounts claimed would have corresponded exactly to money he was entitled to claim for his London home, and that he had not benefited in any way. He had always meant to put his London address on his claim form.

In a statement he told the Journal: “I have not claimed a phantom mortgage. I have a real mortgage on my London second home. I have always claimed the mortgage interest on this house and have submitted my mortgage statement with my claim.

“The mortgage statement makes it clear that I have a London mortgage and how much it is and how much interest I pay. I also submitted an internal form. My mistake was to put the wrong address on the internal form.

“I have claimed the interest that I paid exactly and the statements and the forms all match.

“Yes I made a mistake by putting the wrong address on my internal forms and that is my fault. But it is not true that I have claimed public money on a mortgage that does not exist. It exists and I still pay it.

“I do not wish to be grouped with MPs who have claimed for mortgages which do not exist. As soon as I was told that I had been filling the forms out wrong I stopped and did them correctly.

“It would have been helpful if the mistake I made on my internal forms had been pointed out to me earlier but because a mortgage statement was also submitted it is possible that nobody noticed.

“I am committed to openness and support David Cameron’s lead on sorting this out. I have not claimed any money that I should not have but regret that I wrote down the wrong details on the internal form.

“I shall still be holding my public meeting in Leominster at 4pm next Wednesday so that people can talk about this and I can answer their questions.”

Tory party leader David Cameron, who joined the public school Eton in the same class as Bill Wiggin, supported his MP.

He told the media: “My team went through with Bill Wiggin very carefully what has happened. He had given us every assurance that every penny he claimed should have been claimed and it does look like it is – it is a bad mistake but it looks like it is an honest mistake and he was not claiming money that he was not entitled to.”

A company statement issued to the Journal yesterday said that Frank Green, a local farmer and father-in-law of John Davies, had been appointed as the new managing director of S&A.

But financial director Trevor Gregory denied that Frank Green had been the source of a loan to John Davies, to clear what he had previously described to the Journal as “an issue between him (John Davies) and his bankers and not one between the bank and the company”.

He also said it was wrong of the Journal to have said in its exclusive story on April 1 that a member of Lloyds Bank was spending time on a weekly basis at the S&A HQ.

“We do not have a Lloyds manager in the airing cupboard, although the bank has been very supportive and continues to be so,” said Mr Gregory.

“The issue with the bank was a personal one and nothing to do with the business, and Frank Green coming into the business has made life with Lloyds – in terms of John Davies – more comfortable.

“The bank respects the qualities of the management team,” he said.

The company statement said that John Davies would continue as a company director: “He will advise and support Frank Green in all aspects of the daily running of the business. John Soper (former chairman) will continue on the board as a non executive director.

“The existing management team, who have brought about positive changes in the business in the past 18 months, will remain in place”, it said.

• An S&A planning application for change of use on an agricultural site to accommodate seasonal workers in mobile homes and demountable portable buildings, as well as for ‘Spanish’ polytunnels over strawberries grown on table tops – both at Marden - comes before Herefordshire Council’s central area sub committee today (Wednesday).

Managers intend to work to a ‘speed interviewing’ formula starting at 10am, with prospective staff seen on a first come, first served basis, after details of the restaurant being back in business were exclusively revealed in the Journal last week.

During his mayor-making ceremony, Councillor John Edwards promised a year of activity dealing with important local issues and grievances, highlighted by residents during the Ross Town Plan meetings. He said he would take full advantage of his year as leader of the town council and the opportunities available to introduce and promote ideas and policies for the benefit of the town.

Amid cheers and applause he announced that ‘Ross will have more control of what will benefit Ross’, if the town achieved Quality Status. He said the town council was just one tick away from applying for Quality Status, which he said it would do by the end of the month. Mr Edwards is also chairman of Ross Sports & Leisure Federation and has been championing the need to improve the facilities at the Wilton Road Sports Centre, which has been dogged by complaints about its changing rooms and showers. 

He said: “One area of special interest to me is the research going on the plan to open a cinema. In my view a town, particularly of the size of Ross, is not a proper town until it has its own cinema.” 

The statement brought a round of applause from the audience which had packed into the Larruperz Centre to witness his investiture. 

A forum group of students at John Kyrle High School has already shown enthusiasm for the task of opening a cinema and the federation will work closely with them.

In terms of the retail outlook, he said a working party was needed to promote the town to prospective shopkeepers with the use of tax incentives and other encouragements and that the town council was looking at introducing a Ross house-style for shop front designs. 

He dismissed those claiming Ross was ‘finished’ because of the number of empty shops and charity shops, saying this was ‘bunkum’.

 He said the situation was similar in other towns and that things were better in Ross because of the excellent, independently owned, small specialist shops that he said ‘provide the cornerstone for the local community and tourists’.

The news that Sainsburys, Costa Coffee and Aldi were all planning to open new stores in the town he said was ‘heartening’. 

He said he would set up a special working group to formulate changes needed to tackle traffic and parking issues, saying: “It is no good complaining about parking or the one-way system without having an agreed, credible alternative available to put forward.”

The Mayor’s chosen charity for the year will be Macmillan Cancer Support. 

He said: “Having suffered cancer myself many years ago, I know a lot about the good work done by the Macmillan nurses. We have an excellent hardworking committee in Ross that raised a lot of money for Macmillan Cancer Support. I hope as Mayor to raise a good amount as well for such a worthwhile charity.”

Councillor Jo Lane was installed as deputy mayor and Able Cadet Wesley Jenkins, of the Ross-on-Wye & District Sea Cadets, is the newly-appointed mayor’s cadet. 

Outgoing mayor Councillor John Davies and his wife Hannah were congratulated on the past year in which they raised £1,000 for his chosen charity Multiple Sclerosis. Mr Davies presented a cheque to Gaye Cheeseman, the chairman of the local branch.

The pledge was made at its first AGM, where members were involved in a lively debate on how to move forward. The federation also called for sports clubs in the town to keep it informed of their fixtures so they could co-ordinate publicity. 

Chairman, Councillor John Edwards, who has since been elected Mayor, said: “In particular it was felt more action could be taken on encouraging younger children to take up a variety of sports. 

“Following some criticism that the federation has not been sufficiently communicative about its activities we will hold more open meetings as well expanding the website, www.ross-sports-federation.org, to include more information. 

“However, this should be a two-way street – existing clubs and organisations need to use the site to publicise their activities and latest developments.” 

During the meeting, an update on the Wilton Sports Centre feasibility study was given by Anna Kocerhan of Sports Solutions GB – the company commissioned to undertake the work by the federation. 

The independent study is expected to find a possible solution to the problems at the sports centre and to the development of sporting facilities in Ross in general. 

Establishing pistes for playing petangue (boules), with public access, is also being considered along with possible grounds in Ross which may be suitable for sports and leisure developments.

“We are just going round and round in circles, on and on,” said trust chairman Bill Gibbard. 

“First the planning authority said there was no need for a pool here, and it would hit existing county facilities. 

“But it’s a private development – the effect on county council pools should have nothing to do with it.

“Then they said they didn’t like the access through a residential estate. So we re-submitted the plans using extra land to provide a different access. 

“Now they say that because we have included additional land the application is materially different and therefore can’t be accepted as a resubmission. 

“They were the ones who suggested that they didn’t like access through the estate. We suggested an alternative, and now we are being made to pay for it.” 

Mr Gibbard said he would now have to re-assess the situation with the trust’s officers. 

“Herefordshire Council has given us some ideas to think over,” he said. “I think we may suggest using the route through the estate as pedestrian access, and put in a new application for vehicular access off Upper Hardwick Lane.”

Herefordshire Council refused the original planning application because it was not satisfied that the need for a swimming pool in Bromyard has been established. It said there was an “over-provision of water space” in the county, and extra facilities would hit existing  pools.

The site was in open countryside, not readily accessible to the town, said planners. They didn’t like the access through a residential estate. 

The development would be “visually intrusive and detrimental to its surrounding area.”

In an attempt to deal with the council’s objections, the trust resubmitted the scheme with a new access. The council rejected it again, saying it was invalid as a resubmission because extra land had been included.

Mr Gibbard has since written to the council saying the trust is “at a loss” to understand the refusal. 

Creating an alternative access “must result in extra land being required, purely to establish an acceptable alternative,” he said.

“We are just going round in circles,” Mr Gibbard said. “All we are trying to do is provide an amenity for local people.”

Parents and children on the New Mills and the Deer Park Estates say the play areas on their estates are “desperately in need of investment” and that some of the money they believe the Town Council is bidding for for the Bye Street recreation ground would be “better spent” on upgrading the facilities on these two large residential areas.

Councillor Tony Bradford, who lives on the Deer Park Estate, told the Journal: “Children on this estate have approached me about the lack of play areas here and they have been so frustrated by it that they have gone door-to-door by themselves to get a petition signed, which I’ve passed on to the Town Council.”

The available funding is part of a Government initiative to facilitate outdoor play for children.

Cllr Bradford said: “I understood that around £48,000 would be the kind of figure allocated to Ledbury, although I think that’s gone down to £45,000 now. 

“I am concerned that it will be solely spent on the recreation ground, which is away from where these children live. 

“Their parents would prefer them to play near their homes. We already have a healthy budget for the rec every year so why do we need to spend more?”

This sentiment is echoed by Deer Park resident Julie Davies who’s 13-year-old son Callum Green instigated the petition with a friend.

She said: “I have two sons – an eight-year-old and a 13 year old – and there’s nothing on the estate for them. 

“The older kids could do with something like a dry area to play football, not necessarily AstroTurf but something like it. My oldest son loves playing football with his friends and it makes sense for them to have somewhere where they are not in anyone’s way.

“The recreation ground is up the other end of town and the younger children are not able to go up there. 

“All we have is one baby swing and a tiny slide – it’s not adequate. There should be something were they are safe and we know they are not getting into trouble.”

Former town councillor Martin Eager is equally frustrated by the lack of resources. He said: “The New Mills play areas have been allowed to go to wrack and ruin, the residents are unhappy and it’s totally unfair. 

“There are about 700 houses on this estate and there is one climbing frame with a slide, some climbing rope and a kick-around area with a goalpost but no netting and an old netball post – it needs money spent on it much more than the recreation ground does.”

Town Clerk Karen Mitchell said her understanding was that to access the funding one site needed to be selected for the first year but that it could reapply for other sites in year two, which would be from April 2010 to April 2011.

“It’s early days yet, all we have done so far is advise Herefordshire Council that we intend to make an application for up to £45,000 funding. 

“Nothing has been decided yet as to the details.”

It’s believed Kate Kray, who was once married to paranoid schizophrenic Ronnie Kray, will be at Easters Court on the outskirts of Leominster where a collection of letters, poems, paintings and photographs once owned by the Krays are due to go under the hammer.

Handling the sale, Brightwells have already received considerable interest, though they admit that this auction is a “difficult one” to predict.  

A fascination for Kray memorabilia is apparent from other sales in the UK, though the Leominster auction is unique. 

This remarkable collection reflects the sad story surrounding Brad Lane, a young Doncaster man who developed an enduring friendship with the Krays while still at school. 

He was said to have become obsessed with Reggie when his own father deserted the family home in the 1980s and was to become his most frequent visitor in jail.

Brad even changed his surname to Kray and Reggie signed a legal document declaring him to be his adopted son.

Brad also visited Ronnie until his death in Broadmoor in 1995, and maintained his friendship with Reggie who died five years later.

Over the years Brad amassed a remarkable collection of gifts from the twins.

But after his own tragic death in recent years, his family decided to sell what has been described as a “bizarre and fascinating” selection of personal effects once owned by the Krays, including a gold crucifix and a Cartier watch worn by Reggie in jail. 

There are a number of dedicated photographs, showing the twins as young boxers and Reg with his wife Frances, and items such as a membership card for the Double RR Club, a notorious 1960s drinking den and a criminal court pass permitting their father, Charles Kray to attend the trial. 

Auctioneer Toby Service told the Journal that members of Brad’s family were unlikely to travel down to Leominster as it would be “too upsetting” for them but he believed that 53-year-old Kate Kray could be coming to the sale.

Though the author of Natural Born Killers, a book probing the minds of Britain’s most wanted criminals, and Hard Bastards, a profile of 24 of the country’s toughest men, was eventually divorced, Kate Kray remained friends with Ronnie until his death. 

In the past she has been quoted as saying that he was “just a nice person” and that she hadn’t married him for money or for the name.

Mr Service said that a considerable amount of interest had been shown. 

“We’ve had lots of enquiries and hits on the website and there will be a fair number of phone bids,” he explained. 

“It has aroused a fair bit of interest, thought it is a difficult one to predict.”

• The sale begins at 2pm at Easters Court.