Car-free tourism vision for Eryri’s hotspots :
EXPANDED PARK AND RIDE AND PRE-BOOKING FOR HOTSPOTS TO END YEARS OF GRIDLOCK
APRE- BOOKING parking trial held on Snowdon this summer could herald the introduction of car-free tourism in the national park’s busiest areas.
Snowdonia National Park Authority (SNPA) is considering a range of solutions to address chronic parking problem at honeypot sites.
It said failure to act is “not an option” – especially following chaotic parking scenes on Snowdon this summer as lockdown was eased. Park bosses are keen to make the park an “exemplar” of sustainable tourism in which environmental impacts are reduced in such a way that benefits both visitors and local people.
A transport and parking study for Snowdon and Ogwen underlines SNPA’s ambition.
“The long-term vision is to make the special landscape more accessible to non car-based visitors – and enable people arriving by car to access the area and its attractions by alternative means,” it said. “It seeks to change the social norms so that people no longer expect to drive directly to, and park in the inner area of the special landscape.”
SNPA’s four-year vision will not stop car-based tourism in the most popular areas.
However visitors will be strongly encouraged to use new and larger parkand-ride facilities at “gateway” sites that surround Snowdon and the Ogwen Valley.
The authority also envisages a fleet of zero carbon buses and seasonal parking management in the park’s “inner area”, with options for pre-booking.
A pre-booking pilot at Pen-y-Pass car park in late summer gave a glimpse of how this might work. Over two weekends 60 parking spots were offered for each two day-time slots running from 8am-8pm.
Released at midnight on the preceding Wednesday, all these spots were sold out by Thursday lunchtime.
Three night-time slots were also available, from 8pm-8am. On each occasion more than half were booked.
At the same time parkand-ride services from Llanberis to Pen-y-Pass were expanded to run every 15 minutes at weekends.
SNPA partnerships manager Angela Jones said both arrangements had significantly cut the number of parking violations.
“On the whole the response we received from visitors was very positive,” she said.
“Those arriving from further afield were particularly happy to secure a guaranteed parking spot as, previously, the car park filled up before they could arrive.”
The pre-booking system was hastily set up following emergency talks in the summer after a reported 500 cars partially blocked mountain roads in Eryri (Snowdonia) on a single day.
SNPA dropped plans for a professionally designed system because the companies involved could not guarantee a bilingual service at short notice. Instead park officers used the Eventbrite website to offer bookings.
“By doing this we were able to provide a service at least 90% bilingual,” said Angela. “However it was resource heavy as we had to administer all bookings manually.”
As the most popular mountain in the UK, attracting around 600,000 people every year, Snowdon’s parking problems have long been recognised. Last year it was estimated that, in August, car parks were over capacity on 27 days out of 31.
Another solution is the use of parking permits.
This could even be extended to “visitor passes” for the entire region: not only would this help with parking management, it would allow local business to provide offers and discounts, promoting local economies.
At the same time SNPA want to improve the management of on-street parking and residents’ parking so that local people are not inconvenienced.
For the park authority to achieve its vision, it will also need to improve Snowdonia’s links to public transport services such as rail and long-distance coach travel. In addition, new walking and cycling initiatives are envisaged, along with improvements to the region’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
However SNPA’s transport study cautioned this “world leading” approach to visitor management will require a “substantial amount of capital investment”.
It concluded: “A crucial starting point in shaping visitor travel is to influence people at source, before they decide how they are going to travel. The area will be strongly marketed, at a strategic level, as a sustainable tourism destination, with a clear message that the area is accessible without a car and that, once you are here, car-free travel is possible.”
Later this year SNPA will start canvassing local people for feedback on its proposals.