Outdoor hub to serve 'growing population'

14 hours ago

Ellen Knightat Attingham Park

News image — Mark Agnew said the area's "growing population" meant more green spaces were needed

Staff at a National Trust property have said plans to create a new "outdoor hub" will improve access to green spaces.

Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury, has recently had an application approved by the council for the first phase of construction.

The scheme includes a new building with visitor welcome area, cafe and kiosks, kitchen and toilets, and a space for bike hire and maintenance.

Mark Agnew, who manages the site, said there was a "lack of accessible green space for the people of Shropshire," and hoped the new hub would make a difference.

Existing local destinations like the Wrekin and Haughmond Hill were "becoming incredibly busy", Agnew said, adding that Attingham needed to open up more of its estate "to cope with the big population growth".

The 4,000-acre site currently has only a few hundred acres open to the public.

The "outdoor hub" project has been under consideration for years, he said, and had involved consultation with local communities.

Ove Arup & Partners Ltd An artist's impression - a drawing of what the new trails might look like. The picture shows a woman riding a bike in the foreground, travelling down a winding brown footpath. There are other people in the background walking along the path, which snakes off into the distance. The path is lined by trees and grasses, with wetland habitats visible in the right hand corner. The sky in the picture is blue and slightly cloudy. — An artist's impression has been released, showing how the new trails could look

It will be built to the north of the existing visitor site - on land that was once an RAF airbase.

"The trail network explodes out from it," Agnew explained.

"We've got thousands of years of human occupation here," he said, adding that the trails would "allow people to get out, explore the history of the estate", as well as getting "very close to our nature recovery projects".

Agnew said the National Trust team were doing a huge amount of work on the site, including tree planting, flood prevention, and work to restore species and habitats.

The first phase of construction will involve building five miles of accessible footpaths, a car park, and toilets, but there are also plans to create community rooms, a visitor reception, and a cafe.

Agnew said the trust had consulted "45 community groups and over 1,300 local people who participated in 84 workshops", and that there were plans to "go back out and speak to them all again".

ELLEN KNIGHT/BBC Nick pictured looking into the camera and smiling. He's wearing a navy jacket over a white tshirt, and has a red lanyard with 'National Trust' written on it. He's stood on a gravel path, with green fields and trees seen in the distance. The sky is grey and cloudy. — Nick Harris said green spaces helped people cope with a "challenging" world

The application states the main access point for all visitors is expected to be off the B4394, via the Atcham Business Park access road.

Agnew said he recognised there would be concerns among some of the estate's closest neighbours.

However, Nick Harris, the site's Visitor Operations and Experience Manager, said creating more green space would be a positive thing for local people.

"I think sometimes it's just nice to go and be somewhere where you're... out in beautiful countryside," he added.

"Any place that can bring that to the populations of Shrewsbury and Telford is a win-win in my book."

ELLEN KNIGHT/BBC Derw pictured looking into the camera and smiling. He's wearing a navy knitted jumper with a blue and white striped collared shirt on underneath. He's also wearing a red lanyard with 'Attingham Park' written on it. He's stood in front of an old, red brick cottage, which has white framed windows. There is a tree on the left side of the photo, with its branches reaching across the top of the image. The sky is grey and overcast. — Derw Thomas said the new hub would provide space for people to exercise on the estate

Collections and House Manager Derw Thomas said he hoped the outdoor hub would give people extra space to explore and reduce the number of visitors on the existing site.

In 2022-23, Attingham Park was the most-visited National Trust property in England, with more than 560,000 visitors.

Thomas said the expansion plans would offer visitors a different experience, including room to run and ride bikes, and would show off the "full size of the estate".

Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.