The new chairman of Shrewsbury Business Chamber has spelled out his vision for the future of the town, identifying tourism as the key growth area in the next few years.

Peter Bettis has taken over the helm from Simon Airey after serving as vice chairman of the group he joined nine years ago.

He will hold the post for the next two years and said today he was keen to continue his efforts to expand the focus of the group and that of Shropshire Council to include businesses based outside the river loop.

Mr Bettis, a project manager for Caterpillar, has lived in Shrewsbury since he moved to the area 42 years ago.

He said he was eager to get different businesses and groups to join up their approach to marketing the town to encourage visitors to stay for longer.

“We’re trying to make it into a package so that you come to the theatre and stay for something to eat and then stay in a hotel so you’re visiting for more than a day,” he said.

“We’re trying to kick-start things with the new council.

“We’ve formed a group called the vision team to identify what to look for over the next 20 years in commerce and transport and we’ve identified Shrewsbury as the growth point.”

Mr Bettis said the chamber was looking at an area that roughly covered Shr- ewsbury and surrounding villages including Leighton, Cross Houses, Hadnall and Montford Bridge.

He said he was working with secondary schools to do practical work experience and was also committed to stopping Shrewsbury from losing skilled young people to other towns.

He said: “At the moment Shrewsbury is producing young people for export rather than for home consumption.

“We need to encourage fu- ture markets that will en- able them to stay here.”

Mr Bettis said the chamber’s budget was limited but working with other groups such as Shop in the Loop and Shropshire Council enabled it to do more.

He added he was also trying to persuade the council to change parking in the town so that people paid when they left rather than in advance, which meant many visitors cut their journey short. For details about the chamber visit www.shrews burybusiness.com