AONB petition hits milestone
A PETITION to declare the Cambrian Mountains an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has received more than 10,000 signatures and qualified for a debate at the Senedd.
Known as Wales’s last remaining wilderness, the area spreads across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Powys and includes exceptional glaciated plateaux, lakes, mountain rivers and valleys, as well as hosting a wide range of threatened plants and animals. Currently it has no formal protection.
The petition, organised by the Cambrian Mountains Society, was delivered to the Senedd yesterday.
Dwynwen Belsey, a spokeswoman for the Cambrian Mountains Society, said: “The support for designating this wonderful area – the backbone of Wales, and the heartland of Welsh language and culture – has been overwhelming.
“We have exceeded our target within a very short window. Protection for this unique landscape is long overdue. That one of the most striking areas in Wales is vulnerable to exploitation is a travesty.”
The campaign for AONB status has been backed by numerous high-profile supporters, including TV naturalist Iolo Williams, who is the Cambrian Mountains Society’s president; Sir Simon Jenkins,
a former editor of The Times and current Guardian columnist who is also a former chair of the National Trust; celebrated author and award-winning journalist Neil Ansell; and BBC broadcaster and writer Mary Colwell.
The area is known for its miles of stunning, unbroken views.
The Cambrian Mountains also provide a hugely important habitat for threatened breeding birds such as the golden plover and curlew.
Brecon and Radnorshire Conservative MS James Evans, the Shadow Minister for Mid Wales, said: “The Cambrian Mountains are at the heart of Mid Wales and an outstandingly beautiful landscape. In recent years we have all realised that outdoor spaces are extremely important to both the physical and mental wellbeing of the population. I believe the Cambrian Mountains need recognition and I will work with organisations such as the CMS to ensure the area’s profile is raised”.
CMS trustee Brian Davies, whose family has lived and worked on the western fringes of the Cambrian Mountains for at least five generations and who has written several books about the area, said: “People have been shaping the Cambrian landscape for at least 2,000 years through farming, droving and mining, but because the area is so remote the impacts have been local and small-scale.
“It used to take days on foot or horseback to get from one place to another – you can try it yourself on the Cambrian Way, which I first walked in 1964 before it was even named, across the hills from Llandovery in the south to Commins Coch in the north.
“These hills are still a marvellous place of open spaces and peace even today. With all the proposals for larger developments currently being made, that looks set to change unless we think, and act, now.”
A proposal in 1972 to designate the
Cambrian Mountains as Wales’s first national park lapsed when the order was left unpassed by the Westminster Parliament.
AONB designation, unlike a national park, would not involve a separate planning authority but would co-ordinate management of the region alongside the three county councils.
Ruth Jenkins, head of natural resource management at Natural Resources Wales (NRW), has stated previously: “Wales is home to some of the very best countryside in the world, attracting a wealth of visitors and providing crucial health, wellbeing and economic benefits for local people.
“As part of the Programme for Government commitment, NRW has been asked by the Welsh Government to examine the case for whether the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB area should be considered for National Park status.
“At the present time NRW is only resourced to look at this specific case. We are currently establishing the team and programme of work needed for a project of this scale and complexity.”
NRW is the designating authority for any new AONBS in Wales. The designation process is a complex procedure which usually takes at least three to five years to complete.