Extra police at Carding Mill Valley to prevent another Bank Holiday 'invasion'
Extra police officers will be on patrol near Carding Mill Valley this bank holiday weekend to prevent a repeat of May's bank holiday 'invasion'.
Church Stretton Town Council and Shropshire Council have been in talks and have since started a shuttle bus service and an overflow car park, and have been working with local police, farmers and the AONB Trust to make sure this weekend runs as smoothly as possible.
May Bank Holiday saw a swarm of visitors and cars to the south Shropshire market town, blocking residential streets near Carding Mill Valley with irresponsible parking. The town council said they want to do everything they can to prevent it happening again.
Mayor of Church Stretton, Bob Welch, said they want to encourage people to visit, but warned people against acting inresponsibly.
"We don't want to prevent people coming to visit but just to manage them and make sure people are responsible," he said. "We have now put in place which we did not have before, an overflow car park and a shuttle bus service which we are hopeful will, as it has in recent weeks, managed visitor numbers more effectively.
"We are grateful to the police who agreed to have extra police officers on duty over the bank holiday. In May, there was dangerous and irresponsible clogging up of side streets by a minority of visitors. We want to say welcome to visitors of course, and also to their trade, but we do ask them to act responsibly.
"Church Stretton is a rural community with a high elderly population and so we ask people to be mindful."
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Thousands of visitors descended on the small market town on May Bank Holiday with an estimated 400 cars parked in residential streets due to an influx of visitors to the beauty spot.
The National Trust, owners of Carding Mill Valley, have since worked with local authorities to come up with solutions to the amount of visitors they've had in recent months with more people having 'staycations' as they cannot venture abroad.
"The bus will be running for the last time on Monday, as was initially arranged," Councillor Welch added. "We are most grateful for the organisations who have stepped up in recent weeks to help.
"We are also grateful to Elwyn Parkes, a local farmer, for making his field available for the overflow car park. This will remove a lot of excess parking from residential side streets in the town.
"But we say to visitors, please come and support our local shops and independent retailers after months of closure, just be responsible."
