Champion Pontcysyllte Aqueduct call to boost tourism
More should be done to turn the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near the Shropshire/Welsh border into a major tourism attraction, it has been claimed.
The Thomas Telford-built aqueduct and a section of the Llangollen Canal which is carried by it won Unesco World Heritage Site status in 2009.
But North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood fears it is missing out on thousands of potential visitors every year because it is not being marketed effectively by the Welsh Government.
He raised his concerns during a debate at the Welsh Assembly on Wednesday on the state of the rural economy. Mr Isherwood noted that an estimated 50 per cent of all UK visitors to Wales visit the countryside, yet the word "rural" is mentioned just once in the Welsh Government's new tourism strategy document.
He said that tourism sustained jobs and supported the rural economy.
Mr Isherwood said: "North East Wales is within the reach of 15.5 million potential visitors, a bigger pot than even Cardiff can call upon.
"It needs to be marketed far more in the Midlands and north west of England accordingly.
"During the last Assembly, the then minister developed the north-east Wales cultural action plan, designed, among other things, to establish a programme for the Pontcysyllte world heritage site as an attractor, and the basis for tourism, cultural and wider development projects.
"However, only this week key stakeholders have raised questions with me over whether the Pontcysyllte aqueduct as a regeneration site and tourism area has high enough profile and expressed concern that there wasn't a clear co-ordinated group championing the aqueduct, that there wasn't a named person associated with the aqueduct and that there was a lack of progress with all parties engaged in the aqueduct and Trevor basin in moving the regeneration opportunities forward."
