IT WAS a fiery affair at this month’s Whitchurch Town Council meeting as councillors clashed over a number of issues.

Several items were up for discussion at the meeting, held at Whitchurch Civic Centre on October 25, including requests from Whitchurch Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) and Cancer Research UK.

But early on in the meeting there was a heated debate between Councillors Andy Hall and John Sinnott against mayor Cllr Bev Duffy and council clerk Nicola Young.

The main source of this debate was over the accuracy of minutes from previous meetings, which Cllr Sinnott contested.

The clerk explained that council minutes were not verbatim, and were more of a representation of discussions, as opposed to a full transcript.

Once the debate had settled down, councillors then discussed the youth outreach session that took place over the summer.

Cllr Simon Hamlyn questioned why the sessions only took place over the summer and why they were not taking place for the rest of the year, to which the clerk explained that eight sessions was all the council had budgeted for.

After these discussions had finished the meeting moved onto public matters.

Three members of the public, including Shropshire councillor Paul Wynn, spoke to councillors about the future of Pauls Moss House.

Updated plans were recently revealed for the new health care centre at Pauls Moss, now featuring the house itself.

But residents at the council meeting are concerned that despite retaining the house, there is no mention of what might happen to the interior fixture and fittings when the new health centre is constructed.

Following on from this, councillors heard a request from the Whitchurch SNT regarding the use of a room in the Civic Centre.

The SNT had requested to have a free room for two hours on an afternoon when such a room was available, but councillors suggested that this would contravene council policy but did suggest a grant could be provided to the SNT to cover the cost of the room.

The council also heard an email request from an individual related saying to be related to the Cancer Research Relay for Life that takes place annually in the town.

The individual discussed in detail potential plans for the event to run next year around June time through Jubilee Park, to which the council were happy with, and would seek the necessary permissions.

But a spokesman for Cancer Research UK confirmed the plans were from an enthusiastic but otherwise independent party, not yet associated with the charity and that plans were not yet in such an advanced stage.