PUBLIC CONSULTATION until the end of July 2025
on the draft new five-year Plan for the Shropshire Hills landscape.
Shropshire Hills National Landscape Plan, 2025 - 30
This new 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.
The Plan is developed by a broad Partnership set up for this purpose. It represents local priorities as well as taking account of influences from outside the area including global environmental change and national policies.
Public Consultation
Click the button below to download the draft of ‘Thriving in Balance with Nature’ the new Plan 2025-30 for the Shropshire Hills:
Thriving in Balance with Nature
2-minute audio about the new Plan
You are also invited to our Summer Forum & Field Visits on 5th June at Rushbury, near Church Stretton, to hear more about the new Plan.
To comment on the Plan, please click the button below to go to our Online Form
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.
Making the Plan happen is a shared responsibility and everyone can contribute.
The new Plan is built around six priority themes:
- Restoring our NATURE and regenerating natural processes
- Building CLIMATE resilience and decarbonising urgently
- Managing and looking after our WATER – which supports all life
- Nurturing our LAND and living healthy soil – so it can sustain us
- Healthy PEOPLE connected to nature – in vibrant communities and as welcome visitors
- Valuing and caring for the Shropshire Hills as a special PLACE
The Doughnut Economics model is the framework for our vision for the Shropshire Hills, and to help understand where are now. This model integrates a set of widely accepted factors and measures for meeting people’s needs and for not exceeding environmental limits. Click here for more information on Doughnut Economics.
Organisations, land managers and individuals all play their part in looking after the Shropshire Hills.
Some principles which underpin the new Plan are:
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.
