A bitter row has broken out between two councillors over funding for repair work at Ludlow’s historic Buttercross.

Vivienne Parry, who sits on South Shropshire Dist-rict Council and Shrop-shire County Council, and Martin Taylor-Smith, portfolio holder for finance on the district council and a recently appointed town councillor, have clashed.

Coun Taylor-Smith has hit back after Coun Parry was critical of the town council imposing an inflation-busting council tax levy and made a call for more imaginative thinking in accessing external funding for the Buttercross.

“If Coun Vivienne Parry had bothered to attend either the town council’s full council or annual meeting, she would know the answer to her grant question about the Butter-cross,” said Coun Taylor-Smith. “We have applied for a grant from English Heritage and hope to have an answer by the end of February. The £43,000 is our contribution to the urgently needed repairs.

“She would also have learned that our council tax increase was in fact reduced by £20,000 following extensive scrutiny of internal costs.”

It is anticipated the pair will go head-to-head in elections to the new unitary authority this year.