'Thriving in Balance with Nature'

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PUBLIC CONSULTATION on the new five-year Plan for the Shropshire Hills National Landscape, 2025-30. 

The Plan aims to guide sustainable future directions for the Shropshire Hills.  This is based on the legal purpose for which the area is designated – to conserve and enhance natural beauty, and on addressing the challenges we face.

It has been developed by a broad Partnership set up for this purpose. The Plan represents local priorities as well as taking account of influences from outside the area including global environmental change and national policies.

Public Consultation runs until 18th August 2025.

Click the buttons below to download the draft Plan and to comment on the Plan, using our online form:

download Thriving in Balance with Nature 

comment on the draft Plan

Click on the links below to hear 2 minute audio or 20 minute presentation about the new Plan:

Other pdf downloads related to the new Plan:

Thriving in balance with nature is our vision for the Shropshire Hills. 

The Plan is built around six priority themes; nature, climate, water, land, people & place.

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The Plan aims to influence and guide landowners, organisations and individuals on a wide range of topics by setting out how to best manage the Shropshire Hills landscape. It includes policies to influence decisions which affect the area and identifies desired actions for partners to deliver. 

This is a balance of ambition and realism.  The Shropshire Hills National Landscape designation brings some legal protection and some funding, but neither are adequate to meet the challenges we face. 

Local area issues and priorities

Click onto these links to read the Plan's area sections:

Making the Plan happen is a shared responsibility and everyone can contribute. 

Principles which underpin the new Plan:

The damage to climate and nature threatens human wellbeing and the balance of life – we need a new goal and framework of meeting everyone’s needs within planetary boundaries. 

We need to allow nature to recover while producing healthier food in ways which sustain the land – this is not an either/or, it needs integrated solutions. 

We need to de-carbonise and adapt rapidly across all sectors through behavioural change as well as technology, embracing the huge opportunities for a new economy and better wellbeing.   

We need to support people’s closer connection to nature and place, being more active for health, helping to nurture our environment and being part of communities. 

We need to upscale positive action to achieve these things, and to stop doing the things which continue to cause harm and go in the wrong direction. 

Summary of key issues for the new Plan: 

Climate change mitigation and adaptation, including integrating and developing content from the Partnership’s Climate Change Action Plan, local and national strategies and plans for Net Zero. 

Nature Recovery – linking to the Colchester Declaration, the AONB Nature Recovery Plan and emerging Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

Agriculture transition, the development of the Environmental Land Management (ELM) Scheme and support for those forms of farming most compatible with AONB purposes. 

Priorities set out in the Landscapes Review and government response, and any changes to purposes, duties and targets which result from this.

The government’s Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 (revision to 25 Year Environment Plan).

Closer attention to natural capital assets and the ecosystem services they provide, along with Biodiversity Net Gain, emerging opportunities for green finance, the advantages and disadvantages of carbon offsetting. 

Local authority policies, including the Shropshire Plan (Shropshire Council) and the Telford & Wrekin Local Plan.