Princess Royal pays flying visit to Shropshire

The Princess Royal's Shropshire visit was delayed by half an hour today — because of appalling weather in Lancashire where she had been visiting a prison.

This meant the royal party was about 30 minutes late, touching down in Shrewsbury shortly after 1pm.

But visitors waiting for her at the YSS base in Battlefield finally got to meet her and the tour proceeded as planned.

• See pictures from the Princess Royal's visit to Shrewsbury

The princess is patron of the organisation which is dedicated to helping children, young people and families and particularly wanted to hear more about its work.

She was due to hear about two of the charity's major projects during the hour-long visit.

One is aimed at improving the behaviour of young people aged between eight and 17 who are at risk of falling into anti-social behaviour and offending, and another which helps those already caught up in the criminal justice system.

DIVERT was commissioned by Shropshire Children's Services in 2008 and has worked with nearly 300 young people and their families throughout the county, helping them make socially-responsible choices and finding positive ways to react to daily pressures.

Meanwhile the ISS (Intensive Supervision and Surveillance) project is run in partnership with the Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Youth Offending Service and works with young people to help reduce the risk of them offending further. The project provides up to 25 hours one-to-one support per week and works with about 30 young people a year.

The princess arrived by helicopter at a nearby school to be met by Lord Lieutenant Algy Heber-Percy along with civic officials and YSS chairman Lady Susanna McFarlane.

During the whirlwind visit, Princess Anne met staff, those who use the services and families as well as partner services like police, Youth Support, the Youth Offending Service and the Children's Trust.