Mae’r Cymraeg ar ei ffordd yn fuan

Environment Minister Hannah Blythyn AM announced today that cuts which came into effect in April for the National Parks of Wales are being reversed, and their budgets restored for the next two years.

This decision follows widespread concern at the impacts of losing key staff such as Wardens in Snowdonia, for example.  The Snowdonia Society was active in publicising these issues earlier this year.  We hope that this marks a shift to longer-term funding to avoid the tragedy of making staff redundant unnecessarily and enable the National Park Authorities plan ahead more effectively.  We warmly welcome both the Minister’s decision announced today and the evidence it brings that she has been listening.

The Minister’s announcement is here

Also published today is Valued and Resilient , the Minister’s statement of priorities for National Parks and AONBs.  On first reading we see this as a step towards a clear path forwards for our designated landscapes after 5 years of uncertainty.  We recognise in it a great number of points which fit with the work we’ve been doing in partnership in Snowdonia, developing collaborative plans and projects like the Snowdon Partnership Plan and Cynllun Eryri, to bring the ideas, energy, people and resources together to make the best of our amazing National Park.

We will provide more detailed response to Valued and Resilient when we’ve had a chance to digest it!