These Telford & Wrekin estate alleyways are a lot more interesting than you'd think.

Originally private property, then becoming public realm when the estate roads, green spaces, etc, were 'adopted' by the council (back in the days when it was usual) then form part of an often very convenient network of pedestrian short cuts and cut throughs.

They can be a mixture. In Newport the alleys are Telford & Wrekin, but the footway lights are Newport Town Council. Who maintains them? Good question: in large part, no-one. The ones in Newport at least, and elsewhere too, are not managed, weeded, swept, etc, by Telford & Wrekin on a schedule. They are subject to a 'response team'. If their condition is not queried or challenged, then nothing is done.

Cllr Tim Nelson has tackled the passages from Beechfields Way , Islington Close, and Mere Close himself. He has got Telford & Wrekin to do Strine Way to Avondale. He is working to find a way to keep on top of them in the future.