Conservative councillors on Donnington & Muxton Parish Council have successfully pushed back a decision to give £17,000 of taxpayers' money to Telford & Wrekin Council for Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers without evidence of their effectiveness.

Over the years, Telford & Wrekin Council has cut services and convinced parish and town councils to pay them to restore the cut services for their areas. Donnington & Muxton Parish Council has been paying for Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers but there are questions about their effectiveness given that numbers of offences across the parish are not decreasing.

Cllr Lisa Dugmore said:

We want to see the impact of what’s happening, the impact of what they are doing. It’s not clear. There is no evidence that anything is changing.

We were pretty clear what we want to see. We want to see the impact of what’s happening.

What difference does it make? It’s not changing anything.

Cllr Thomas Hoof said:

It is sensible and financially responsible for us to look at how we’re investing our money.

That’s all we’re asking, it’s not a controversial topic. Can you justify the spend? Can we prove the system is working?

The Labour group that controls to council were keen to hand the money over to Telford & Wrekin Council without asking for evidence that the NEOs are reducing offences such as fly tipping, graffiti, dog fouling and illegal parking but eventually backed down and supported the Conservative Group's motion to defer the decision until they could ensure the taxpayer was getting value for money.