A COLWALL hotelier believes the Malvern Hills are losing out on tourism and has urged the parish council to support the village in switching counties from Herefordshire to Worcestershire.

Iain Nesbitt, owner of Colwall Park Hotel, believes his village and the hills would prosper under the jurisdiction of Worcestershire County Council.

He said: “The basic tenet is trying to get all of the Malvern Hills under one council. Half is Herefordshire and half is Worcestershire, meaning it belongs to nobody, so nobody bothers marketing it.

“Worcestershire County Council is bigger, better and has more resources than Herefordshire Council.”

He described Colwall as being like “no-man’s land” because of its location on the extremities of Herefordshire.

Spokesman for Herefordshire Council John Burnett said: “Wherever there are local government boundaries, there are invariably villages or towns.

“Moving these villages or towns from one county to another still places it on the boundary. Herefordshire Council recognises the need to work very closely with colleagues in Worcestershire to promote the Malvern Hills and surrounding towns and villages as a superb area for people to visit.”

He said that tourists did not make decisions on whether to visit areas based on local authority boundaries.

Mr Nesbitt has written to the Colwall Parish Council and the matter will be discussed at their next meeting on Wednesday, May 27, from 7.30pm, in the village’s library.

Vice-chairman of Colwall Parish Council Jonathan Mills said the council would listen to the views of local people when it discussed the matter.