A MOTION to create new gender-neutral terms for the Free men and women of Oswestry will be pushed back a month while legality is confirmed.

At Wednesday’s full town council meeting, councillors were asked to confirm the application parameters to create new Free men and women of Oswestry.

Councillor Duncan Kerr called for more women to be proposed or apply, stating that they were under-represented.

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But it was Cllr Sam Chadwick who called on the council to remove the gendered terms as part of its commitment to inclusivity.

However, Cllr Mike Isherwood, chairing his first meeting as mayor, reminded Cllr Chadwick that the use of Freemen/women is a legal phrase, which the councillor argued that was superseded by new laws protecting identity and sexuality.

Town clerk Arren Roberts told the meeting the council can call it a term of its own making but within the confines of the 1972 Local Government Act.

Councillor Mark Jones proposed that in order to work with Cllr Chadwick’s suggestion and keep the term gender neutral, then the council could confer the tile of ‘Honorary Oswestrians’ on future winners.

This received support across the chamber but Cllr James Owen had already put forward a motion to defer the item until the council had clarified the legality of renaming the award.

Cllr Isherwood asked Cllr Owen if he wanted to withdraw his motion given the support for Cllr Jones’s suggestion – which was seconded by Cllr Duncan Kerr – but the Lib Dem member refused and it was passed on a majority vote.

Cllrs Kerr and Rosie Radford also agreed that applications and proposals should come from under-represented groups.

The new term could be rubber-stamped at the July meeting.

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Meanwhile, an unspecified tender to carry out work on the Indoor Market Hall on the Bailey Head was supported by councillors.

Mr Roberts told the meeting that much of the work can be carried out without affecting traders’ day-to-day work but agreed that it could be carried out during times of lower activity such as January.

The clerk also told the meeting that ‘the town council has served the people of Oswestry this year’ after its accounts audit was completed and that they were in a ‘strong position’.