Shropshire's hotbeds for affairs revealed

A dating website today released figures showing how many people across Shropshire have signed up to find some extramarital fun.

The Infidelityindex website offers the chance for people who fancy an affair to link up with like-minded members of the opposite sex.

According to the site, there are 610 husbands or wives in Shrewsbury alone who have signed up.

With about 100,000 residents and latest statistics showing 59 per cent of the population on average is married, that means a little over one per cent of married people in Shrewsbury are looking to stray.

That proportion is positively saintly, however, when compared to Shropshire's most unfaithful town - Whitchurch.

A total of 276 wedded people in the town are on the lookout for love or lust with someone else on the site, a figure representing 5.2 per cent of the married population.

Proportionately, Telford is the county's most faithful town, with just 0.3 per cent of marrieds looking to cheat.

The figures putting Whitchurch in the naughty corner have come from the UK's largest dating website for married people.

Illicit Encounters has compiled statistics on the numbers of people in every town registered with them and actively looking for an extra marital relationship for the curious and even suspicious spouses to check.

Anyone wanting to see how their town ranks can check the website application at www.infidelityindex.co.uk and enter the name of their town or their postcode.

Illicit Encounters has 850,000 members nationally and spokesman Mike Taylor said it was fascinating to see the breakdown of how many people were looking for affairs in different areas.

"Who wouldn't want to see if they live in a hanky panky hotspot," he said.

"We have already had thousands of people visiting the website looking to see where their home town ranks compared with their friends."

He added: "Users have one thing in common – they are all looking for a little romance outside their current relationship.

"Whether that's the occasional bit of flirtatious chat, no strings intimacy, or a full-blown affair, that's entirely up to them."

Whitchurch vicar The Rev Judy Hunt, vicar of St Alkmund's Church, defended her town's honour today.

She said: "Whitchurch is no different to any other town. There are a lot of strong families and extended families.

"I think quite often people who look at websites such as these are initially intrigued but often don't go any further and have no intention of acting on it."

And she added: "It is sad if it does, however, lead them to hurt someone else, rather than seek help to fix whatever is wrong with their relationship."

Counsellor Christine Northam, of relationship counselling and support organisation Relate, added: "In our experience at Relate, affairs can be painful and destructive, and some relationships never recover.

"Our advice would be to seek help for a relationship if people aren't happy, rather than considering an affair as a solution."

The dating site was set up in 2003 by website entrepreneur and businessman Steven Lines.

Mr Lines has been reported as having come up with the idea after he and his wife hosted a dinner party and one friend, after too much wine, confessed the same illness that had kept her husband away from the party that evening had also put paid to their sex life.

She confided she was desperate to get her sexual thrills elsewhere, without compromising her marriage.

It gave Mr Lines the idea to overhaul his ailing, existing mainstream dating site by facilitating people looking for affairs instead.

Playing away - how your area fares:

Number of people who are looking for an affair:

• Shrewsbury.......610

• Oswestry...........395

• Telford...............374

• Whitchurch........276

• Newport............269

• Market Drayton...236

• Bridgnorth.........211

• Ludlow...............118

• Bishop’s Castle ....32

• Much Wenlock......28

Percentage of people looking for an affair:

• Whitchurch......... 5.2

• Newport.............4.2

• Oswestry............ 4.2

• Market Drayton....3.8

• Bishop’s Castle ...3.3

• Bridgnorth..........2.9

• Ludlow................1.9

• Much Wenlock.....1.8

• Shrewsbury........1.4

• Telford................0.3