Shropshire, despite its wonderful countryside, is not known for its tourist industry and has relatively few visitors to its rural areas (ie. beyond Telford, Ironbridge and Shrewsbury). The only exception to this would be the Severn Valley Railway, which is a major attraction.

The question is this - is having few visitors coming to our countryside a bad thing?

While some would say that we would benefit from having more tourism in Shropshire with economic arguments, there are others who argue that the countryside should be protected and would be spoilt by having too many tourists.

So should we keep Shropshire secret? Interestingly, many times the idea of making South Shropshire a National Park has arisen. Whilst this would protect the countryside and any towns included from urban development, it may actually increase visitor numbers and this in turn would put pressure on the countryside and infrastructure.

I say that it's better that we keep our county fairly low key when it comes to tourism, especially the rural parts (ie. 95% of it!). Some parts of England have been spoilt by too much tourism and locals feel relegated to second priority to the tourists. The bigger towns of Shrewsbury and Telford should instead be the centre of any Shropshire tourist industry.

Any thoughts?

sssshhhhhh!

I think that it is just about right as it is.You only have to visit Chester or York to see how bad hih volume of tourists can be.

it wouldn,t hurt us locals to get out and about a bit more though.Don't forget Rowley's House closes soon,go on pop in.

s.g.d.

It might be worth designating Shropshire as a National Park for the increase in the volume and reliability of funding that a National Park receives when compared to an AONB. This seems to be one of the arguments favoured by local people in the South Downs / Weald as that area moves towards National Park status.

Where should the boundaries be? The current AONB boundaries exclude plenty of nice areas - there are good arguments for extending the protected zone into North Herefordshire (why not include, for example, Leintwardine and Wigmore?) and the meres and mosses of North Shropshire / Cheshire need better protection as part of an overall plan. I know that English Nature and Shropshire Wildlife Trust continue to do sterling work in places like Whixall Moss, but the future of English Nature is uncertain and Shropshire Wildlife Trust lacks the funding and authority for large-scale work.

However, the idea of a Shropshire National Park seems to be several rungs down the current hierarchy of aspiration at Defra and voluntary bodies. There is more interest in moving towards National Park status for the Cambrian Mountains.