Robert's voice of reason, and calm is refreshing. The responses from new members who've signed up, are probably clear, though I'll put a better sign up form later:
The Wrekin needs to keep it's wildness, no prissiness,
development is out,
toilets should be available,
a cup of tea would be nice,
disabled should be enabled.
Parking needs to be sorted on high days and holidays,
cars whizz too fast.

It's a hot potato, nobody trusts anybody. Mad, bad ideas are floating about, gossip is being stoked, people are falling out.

Let's put our collective heads together. Let's come up with ideas, that everybody can be happy with, or a least most. Compromise, creativity and  thought.

Here's my first stab at a plan, or two.

There are disabled Friends who go up in electric wheelchairs. These wheelchairs could be hired at the foot. I'm sure those disabled Friends that go up now, would not want a smooth path, just for them. I wish we could ask them. One new member suggested a ski lift--a mad idea, but one that works for me. Finishing at the top, but starting from where? Could it be economically sustainable?

At present you can get a cup of tea from Tom's at the Halfway House on weekends. Weekdays, there isn't enough footfall on The Hill. Same on really bad weather weekend days. You can also get a cup of tea, and a pint and a good meal at the Buckatree Hotel. Why a third such place that would compete, for a tiny market too?

Why can't we make more of these? They'd be happy. Wouldn't they? So would everybody? I think most members would (I'm going to formally ask, later). What about the councils and quangos? The long suffering landowners, just want a quiet life, it seems to me.

The councils and quangos IMHO, want the pride. Of their own ideas. They're own corporate logos, on the signage, the car parks, the entrances. It's these two types of organisation who are the main drivers of change. The quangos need IMHO to get these grants, to keep themselves in business. Why don't we, the Friends, help these businesses go for the grants? The councils know about grants too, and popularity.

We could get the councils to think outside their current plans, and think of helping these businesses fulfil the needs of tourism, tea, toilets and interpretation centre(s). And open those bottom toilets on high days and hot summers. They look the part.

We could get the SWT to think about no changes. And to support the place, without their corporate branding, prissy, unnatural plinths, plaques, bridges, steps and archways. Sure, small necessary bits here, and there, but kept in character, as if they've always been there, near invisible mending.  A few more planks over this notorious bridge, a few strategic rocks as steps.

The landowners can do what they've always done. Some do nothing, some work the land. SWT's current plan is to help them.

How about shutting down the car parks, the areas of on road parking too--retuning them to their natural states. Turning that area in a 5mph area, perhaps with cameras! An extension car park on the Buckatree Hotel, would, to me, be just the ticket, to them too, I'd bet. It's 2000 feet to walk to the main gate. Hire of the electric wheel chairs would be here, maybe bike hire, too. Perhaps they'd even open a designer rambler clothes shop, though if I were them I'd go for a discount store for the outdoor market.

The Ercall would have increased importance. As a forest school it's perfect. So SWT would like that.

If only there was a more direct route to the Buckatree, from the motorway. It seems it's missing 1000 feet to cut the corner. (I've no idea who owns this land.)  That corner, at the current car parks could be so quiet!

Cameras and such a slow section would deter the shortcut traffic, but allow the access traffic. Wouldn't the village of Little Wenlock like that? Don't suppose the vandals would be happy at infra-red CCTV signs.

With the car parks returned to their natural state, it would be ideal for rock climbing instruction. Dennis Allen, the councillor and climber would like that.

A geology and history interpretation centre could be in the Buckatree--seen it once or twice and you've got the jist--but great for newbies. A nature one at the Halfway house, learning all those trees, birds and butterflies, will stand up to more inspection by the 80% who are regulars. Maybe this would be duplicated at the Ercall's forest school?

It adds up IMHO to a naked tourist attraction. No Disney World. But it's a superb, perfect, hidden tourist attraction. One that the councils would like, the anti-open cast miner campaign would point to it, and say such a hairbrained scheme is now impossible.

Great for regulars, those that don't want the Buckatree to the base, a 2000 feet walk, can be dropped off. And what about that ski lift? Imagine that going from the Buckatree, over the pool, over the forest, up to the top. Yeah, mad! Beautiful 2 miles though, huh! :-)

Just my tuppence worth. What's yours? Out of the box thinking, very welcome!

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 10/1/08; 11:12:31 PM
To the Gossip & Rumour dept.
Discuss Comment [0]
My ideas, what are yours?

While alarmist and sensational headlines sell newspapers they achieve little else.

We live right in the middle of and overlook the focal point of the latest source of controversy - at the Forest Glen. We moved here - and built our house here - because we enjoy and value the natural amenities on our doorstep and we have seen nothing in any of the recent proposals that causes us alarm.

This whole area - Wrekin and Ercall - is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Nothing can or will be allowed to happen here that threatens either statutorily protected status.

The furore that exploded when the Orleton Estate quite reasonably sought to dispose of their small part of the Wrekin only resulted in the Wildlife Trust being put in funds to pay an inflated price to the Receivers administering the affairs of the former owners of the Forest Glen site.

A moment’s reflection would have made plain that this part of the hill, rather than having any commercial value, is a financial liability.

The sketch produced by a member of the Architect’s Department at the Borough Council and shown at the public meeting last month at Little Wenlock Village Hall was just that - a sketch... As I understood, it demonstrated that a combined modest toilet block / information centre and refreshment facility within part of the former Forest Glen site was a feasible alternative to modernising the old, gruesome brick building at the foot of the track.

The gull-wing roof was, as I saw it, a matter of artistic licence. Commercial reality and further thought would have dictated a less expensive, more conventional, structure long before a Planning Application was submitted.

Two old railway sleepers across the brook do not provide a permanent, adequate, safe or sightly public access to the Wrekin. Replacing them with a footbridge is sensible and threatens nobody nor does it create a precedent for inappropriate development elsewhere in the area. Whether or not we should be encouraging families to cross the road from the car park at that point is another matter.

Have any of the protesters considered that, while the existing rough, uneven track may be 'picturesque' or 'natural' it does nothing to facilitate access my individual disabled persons - who are totally unable to enjoy the exhilarating view from the top of the hill or any of the vantage points on the way up?

It is a matter of disgrace that the Local Authority has evaded responsibility for the provision of adequate toilet facilities at the foot of the Wrekin. This is not the place for me to draw unfavourable comparisons between the situation here and that elsewhere in the country where a Local Authority provided toilet facilities that enhanced the sense of pride that locals feel in their town - but I will happily do so elsewhere if asked.

To add to that basic need the provision of information and modest refreshment is sensible and should be encouraged.

We look forward to attending the meeting (is it on the 5th or the 11th by the way?) and supporting the enabling of further action that will give effect to Pete Lambert’s careful work and recommendations.

[Note:] The closed initial meeting of the WFP is on the 5th. The OPEN meeting of AFRTW is the 11th.
# Posted by Steve Hooker at 10/1/08; 6:00:09 PM
To the Gossip & Rumour dept.
Discuss Comment [0]
Mail from Robert Justham

Duncan Purslow
I saw the report on TV last night. I totally agree with your opposition to the 'commercialization' of the countryside. I myself live in the Birmingham area but we have similar problems. A large area south of Birmingham also has similar challenges. 'The Wildlife Trust' has funding and they assure us that they do not intend to commercialise the countryside round where I live but they want to put car parks, signage and possibly a Visitor Centre, which is the start of the rot. We have enough traffic already without additional coachloads of people to deteriorate the area. I imagine you feel the same. Keep resisting it else it will be the thin end of the wedge.for all of us. Let me know how you get on. There must be other areas of the country in a similar position. Keep in touch.

Future: The toilet block needs a re-think and then opened.
Not Future: I think the Wrekin should remain as wild and natural as possible. In a perfect world this hill would not be owned by a small group, but collectively managed by the public and all that use it. I feel it is important to have an environment that is free from commercialization and consumption, somewhere people can go to feel a connection with  the environment. The Wrekin is important to me in many ways, it's more than just a hill, its a living thing and should be treated with respect.

Future: Very little - the toilets restored and re-opened perhaps.
Not Future: Any development, commercialisation or sanitisation of the Wrekin. # Posted by Steve Hooker at 10/1/08; 1:35:43 PM
To the Gossip & Rumour dept.
Discuss Comment [0]
More YOU

The ugly bridge is, truly ugly, in the wet and with crisp packets and a plank of wood in the stream.
"Believe it or not," says the voice over, "Mr Hooker is worried that investing money on The Wrekin and the limited features here will actually have a negative impact."

Believe it or not, if I had jumped down and did a bit of litter picking while they were setting up that shot, they wouldn't have had the same impactful shot of an untidy, ugly bridge. Just some planks going over a stream.

Sure, it's dangerous. But so are the crags at the top and the disused quarries. Should they be fenced off? Does everything need to be made safe, pretty, cute, tidy and conquered by quangos and regulations?

As it is, this 'bridge,' these two planks of wood, do just the right job, they make the shortcut entrance for my two children exciting. # Posted by Steve Hooker at 10/1/08; 11:06:15 AM
To the gossip & rumour dept.
Discuss Comment [0]
Believe it or not

Mrs Westrop
I saw the piece on the local news tonight and agreed entirely with the gentleman who made a plea for leaving things as they are. If you have a petition, please send me the link and I will sign this.
I can't stand local councils and the way they waste money.  Here in Birmingham we have lovely old Victorian parks which (with some exceptions,) are totally neglected and not maintained.  Yet while councils are negligent about urban parks, they destroy wild places with unwanted fiddling- park facilities, railings, signs, ramps, etc.  And I was particularly dismayed, recently, when we went to Cannock Chase because it was absolutely littered with terrible community art.
Hope that the Wrekin survives in its genuine character.   

Ian and Jean
We are retired and from Stoke and do not often get down to the Wrekin. Saw the slot on Midlands Today and agree it should be kept 'wild'. Most 'new' Country Parks begin looking like they have been prepared by people using scissors to cut the grass; a slide rule to design areas, etc - clinical. Within a short space of time the 'yobs' have been attracted to a 'lovely' place to deface by graffitti, tear around on quad bikes or unlicenced motorized bikes, horses churn up paths they should never realistically set foot on. All this turns the place into a shambles.
Oh and I forgot - it now takes and army of volunteers to clear up all the litter EVERY DAY.
If this agrees with the majority view, please let us know how we can help you.

Future: Don't do anything to change it.
Not Future: No theme parks or health and safety, no suburbanization.  And above all, please please please please no terrible public art.

Future: Nothing
Not Future: Tarmac paths and glorified political correctness and commercialisation.

Future: Reopen the toilets at the bottom - that's all.
Not Future: Tarmac footpaths, more car parks, cafes, visitor centres or any other theme park attributes. PLEASE leave us a relatively unspoilt place to enjoy nature without some authority or quango 'improving' it. Nature does a great job all on its own without arrogant human interference.

Future: Improved paths including ones suitable for disabled access(including wheelchair users) so that i can take advantage of this wonderful site. Wheelchair accessible toilets.
Not Future: It be turned into a major tourist attraction complete with coachloads of visitors & accompanying litter # Posted by Steve Hooker at 10/1/08; 9:38:41 AM
To the Gossip & Rumour dept.
Discuss Comment [0]
More what YOU say