If you’ve visited Snowdonia recently, you may have noticed changes to the car parking in the honey pot areas such as the Ogwen valley. Many BMC members certainly have, and they’ve been getting in touch - worried that the second working plan of the Snowdonia Green Key Partnership appears to be reducing the amount of car parking available. Time for a closer look.

Q. What is the Green Key Partnership?
A. The first incarnation of the Snowdonia Green Key Partnership (SGKP) proposed to reduce the available parking in Snowdonia National Park whilst encouraging visitors to use a park-and-ride bus scheme. However the details were ill thought out and it met with considerable opposition, so went back to the drawing board to produce the current second working plan. This is now underway and involves work on some of the region’s car parks.

Q. What is the current state of play?
A. A number of organisations were consulted, and the BMC (via the Committee for Wales) submitted a response detailing the concerns of climbers and hill walkers. The overall stated aim of the SGKP is to better manage the existing parking and not prohibit acceptably safe, historic parking practices. However it won’t promote the construction of large, new parking facilities on this land - designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a European Special Area for Conservation (SAC).

Q. What does that mean in practice?
A. The SGKP have started improving the quality and safety of parking in the Ogwen and Llanberis valleys, and will soon issue the next phase of the working plan - generated through consultation.

Q. How has the parking been improved?
A. At the Bochlwyd lay-by (serving Tryfan and the Glyders) the section of old highway and popular parking area has been brought up to the required safety standards with landscaping and filling-in of potholes. At the Ogwen Cottage (Snowdonia National Park Authority) car park, a popular starting point for the footpath to Llyn Idwal, the SGKP plan to enhance and extend the parking to accommodate another 11 -18 cars - subject to planning agreement. At Bryn Melyn (by Llyn Ogwen) the parking will be landscaped and formalised to accommodate the maximum number of cars, and on the Gwern Gof Uchaf straight (serving Milestone Buttress and Little Tryfan) the edge of the highway has been strengthened and resurfaced to improve safety.

Q. How many spaces are actually available?
A. With the proposed extensions and tidying up it seems there will be a slight overall net increase to approximately 350 available spaces within a two mile stretch of the Ogwen valley, about the same capacity as a big city centre car park. Considering the valley has an unrestricted 60 mph road, is in a National Park and has both SSSI and SAC status, this is an impressive balance.

Q. What happens when the parking is full?
A. The most convenient parking spots quickly fill up on certain weekends, in which case we advise you to check the other places down the valley. In addition, a couple of the local farms charge about £1/day to park in their fields.

Q. Anything in the rumour that pay machines will be installed?
A. Unfortunately yes, the SGKP is considering introducing payment at the formalised sites. This has not been fully agreed yet and the BMC would hope that if a payment scheme were introduced, it would operate on a voluntary basis only - like the successful Peak District scheme. The National Park currently have season parking tickets available, but these are valid for their own car parks, and SGKP is investigating the possibility of an annual parking pass valid for all sites within the Park.

Q. I don’t fancy that, is the Sherpa bus still running?
A. Sure is. The Snowdon Sherpa day ticket allows you to hop on and off the Snowdon Sherpa network all day as many times as you like on the day of purchase. The ticket is valid between Bethesda, Llanberis, Llanrwst, Porthmadog, and Waunfawr/Carnarvon. See www.wbrua.net/sherpa for the full service timetable and map.

Further Information
Web photo gallery: See the results of the road improvement online.
www.thebmc.co.uk/news/galleries/ogwen/index.htm

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