KLS urges wide consultation on new tourism plan

Community group Keep Llangollen Special (KLS) has written to the company preparing a sustainable tourism strategy for the area stressing that a range of interested parties must be consulted as it is being drawn up.

In a letter to the consultants working on the project, KLS chair Mike Edwards (pictured below) says: “We trust you will be consulting fully when formulating your strategy and talking to residents, retailers, producers, hoteliers and outdoor activity providers etc.

“We are a constructive, properly constituted community organisation and our principal aim is to protect and promote the identity, image and brand of Llangollen.

"We have been holding monthly Buy Local days on the second Friday of every month since the middle of last year. “The aim of these is to support and promote independent local businesses (retailers and suppliers) to keep money circulating in the local economy rather than being it being exported to corporate HQs elsewhere.
 
“We are working with Cittaslow Llangollen and the Town Council to support Field2Fork encouraging residents to buy local fresh produce sufficient for their immediate needs and not buy and waste excess food as they are persuaded  into doing by supermarkets.

“We also want to promote local food producers and farmers whose meat products have trusted provenance and help particular local butchers, greengrocers, delicatessens and cafes who will shortly face severe competition from an out-of-town supermarket who propose to export £18.4m pa out of the Llangollen economy.
 
“We are actively investigating a number of key schemes to promote these aims.

“If your consultations are open and truly involve local residents, we would be happy to share our ideas and plans with you.

“One of the problems we have identified is that there are numerous organisations in Llangollen some of which have their own agenda and there is a need to pull these fragmented interest together because at the end of the day surely everyone is interested in protecting and enhancing everything which is special about Llangollen and the Dee Valley.”