National park staff to have St. David’s Day as holiday

SNOWDONIA AUTHORITY FOLLOWS LEAD SET BY GWYNEDD

STAFF at Wales’ largest national park are to have St David’s Day off as holiday. The Snowdonia National Park Authority said it had “approved a proposal to mark the importance of St David’s Day”.

A spokesman said the decision follows similar traditions in other Celtic countries to celebrate their national patron saints.

He added senior park officials carried out a consultation with authority staff and it was decided they will receive an extra holiday on March 1.

Wyn Ellis Jones, the Snowdonia National Park Authority chairman, said: “As March is a quieter time than usual for the Authority with commercial centres closed or running on reduced hours and staff, we anticipate that the cost will be very minimal, if any to the authority.

“The staff received the extra day of holiday last year as a reward for their hard work over the pandemic and we feel that the same should happen again this year.”

The Snowdonia National Park Authority employs about 140 staff whose roles range from wardens to planning officers and administrators.

None of the staff are employed in frontline emergency work such as mountain rescue.

The move follows Gwynedd Council’s decision to award most of its staff an additional day’s holiday to mark the occasion.

In a move that is likely to cost the Plaid Cymru-run authority about £200,000 it has emerged while teaching assistants and support staff will get an extra day’s leave teachers will not benefit from the decision.

The council explained teachers terms and conditions are agreed Wales-wide and not by local education authorities.

As part of its decision Gwynedd Council will continue to urge other local authorities and public bodies to discuss whether or not to award their staff a holiday on March 1.

Last autumn the Westminster government rejected calls for a St David’s Day Bank Holiday after claiming too many people commute across the Welsh and English border to make the idea feasible.

Gwynedd Council had called for an end to the “embarrassing” anomaly of the Scottish and Northern Irish Governments being able to designate their national days while no such powers are currently devolved to Cardiff.