Plans go in to raze Electric Mountain visitor centre to put car park on site
FULL planning permission has been sought to demolish a landmark Snowdonia tourist attraction.
The Electric Mountain Visitor Centre in Llanberis would be replaced by a car park.
The centre has been closed since late 2018 and has been boarded up and surrounded by a fence.
A planned redevelopment of the centre is said to have been hit by “insurmountable challenges” and won’t now go ahead.
Electric Mountain, which lies on the banks of Llyn Padarn, and was previously used as a base for tours of Dinorwig Power Station, also had a community space and staged regular exhibitions and other events and also had a shop, information centre and cafe.
First Hydro Ltd submitted an application for planning permission earlier this month and details have now been published on the Gwynedd Council planning portal.
In a covering letter to Gwynedd Council’s planning department Howard Jones, of First Hydro, states: “The visitor centre was underused and too large for the range of activities that it accommodated.
“The building was inefficient and expensive to heat and maintain and many of the building services were approaching the end of their operation life and required replacement.
“In October 2018, First Hydro obtained planning permission for the refurbishment of the visitor centre, to include the partial demolition of the existing building, together with associated landscaping works, the formation of a temporary construction access and the erection of a canopy.
“Planning permission was also obtained for the provision of a temporary portacabin visitor centre on the adjacent car park, in order that power station tours could continue whilst the visitor centre was being refurbished.
“The temporary visitor centre operated in 2019 and the visitor centre building was secured whilst tenders were sought for its refurbishment.
The temporary visitor centre did not reopen in 2020, due to Covid 19 restrictions, and First Hydro did not receive any acceptable tenders for the refurbishment of the visitor centre building.
“In the meanwhile, a programme of mid-life operational improvement works to Dinorwig Power Station has been identified and agreed and these works, which are due to commence shortly, are likely to take several years to complete. First Hydro will be unable to offer public visits to the power station whilst the programme of midlife improvement works is taking place.
“Thus, First Hydro has no requirement for the visitor centre building in the foreseeable future and the condition of the building is likely to deteriorate over time. First Hydro has sought to secure the building; however, vandalism, security and consequential liabilities are a cause for ongoing concern and the disused appearance of the visitor centre adversely affects the visual amenity of the area.
“Consequently, First Hydro proposes to demolish the majority of the existing visitor centre building and to bring the site back into a use which is beneficial to the general area and, following earlier community engagement, appears to have broad support within the local community.”
The application for planning permission involves the complete demolition of the existing visitor centre building with the exception of the existing switch room/electricity substation.
This will be retained and re-clad, with a pitched roof added using recycled natural slate from the existing visitor centre building while also incorporating a bat roost.
Following the demolition of the building, it is proposed to develop the site as a public car park.
This would provide 100 additional public pay-and-display car parking spaces, including five disabled spaces and 12 electric vehicle charging points.