ARE you “terrified” of the countryside?

If so, there is help. Countryside businesses in Oxfordshire are being urged to help ‘townies’ get back in touch with the great outdoors after the National Trust suggested that people in towns were becoming scared of the countryside.

In October, the trust’s director general, Dame Fiona Reynolds, said city dwellers, especially the young and poor, were damaging their health by being increasingly confined to urban areas and the indoors.

She said: “There is evidence that people who are brought up in big cities are scared.

“The countryside is becoming this great unknown, alien place.”

Tourism South East has launched a campaign to help Oxfordshire’s rural communities entice visitors back.

Countryside 2011, which follows a similar campaign this year, will encourage stately homes, farms, teashops and hotels to join forces and encourage people back to nature.

Co-ordinator Alison Burgh said: “It sounds strange, but many people don’t know how to go to the countryside and enjoy themselves.

“You don’t just drive up and stand in a field.”

This year, people got the chance to ‘be a farmer for a day’, try their hand at gliding, and go ferret-walking.

Many more took part in country walks and bike rides, exhibitions and nature trails.

In all, more than 800 events were organised, which attracted 12 per cent more tourists than usual, including 38,000 new visitors.

Mrs Burgh said: “The idea is for communities and businesses to organise something in two weeks of the summer, from a festival or scarecrow competition, to a woodworking workshop or just offering a free coffee in their cafe.

“The events will then be put into a directory on our website, which anyone will be able to look at from March.” She added: “The ambition is basically to get people outside.”

The campaign is also being helped by Oxfordshire County Council’s countryside service, based in Eynsham.

Rights of way officer Dan Weeks said: “This is all about taking the hassle factor out of visiting the countryside.

“I wouldn’t wholeheartedly agree that people are ‘terrified’ but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to do things better.

“We just want to show Oxfordshire’s countryside is a great place to enjoy.”

Countryside 2011’s ‘fortnight of discovery’ takes place from May 28 to June 12.

rpope@oxfordmail.co.uk For more details and information on how to register, visitcountryside 2011.org.uk