Yr Wyddfa (or Snowdon to most visitors) is possibly the most visited mountain in the world. With nearly half a million climbers and walkers a year visiting its slopes and a tourist train carrying another two hundred thousand visitors to the summit, there are significant management challenges. Snowdonia National Park wants your views on its plans to manage this iconic peak.
About three years ago the BMC raised concerns about the management of Snowdon and the impact that the sheer volume of visitors and land managment was having on this supposedly protected and designated Special Area of Conservation. In a slightly controversial article “Snowdon isn't working” the BMC were concerned that the authorities were not doing enough to manage the mountain and that not enough resources were being allocated to look after one of Wales', if not the UK's top natural tourist attraction.
Since then, Snowdonia National Park Authority, despite having a 20% cut in funding from Welsh Government, have taken up the challenge and established a Snowdon Partnership Group, involving key stakeholders, conservation bodies and land owners to come up with a plan to look at a long term solution to the issues identified in the initial consultation. That group, co-ordinated by the National Park's Partnerships Manager, Helen Pye have now produced a draft Snowdon Partnership Plan and are seeking your views on its content and proposals.
At a series of well-attended drop-in sessions and a seminar in the autumn of 2015 respondents raised concerns about issues as diverse as car parking, footpath erosion, litter, over-grazing, fences, hydro-schemes, livestock disturbance, climate change, challenge events, avoidable mountain rescue call-outs and a myriad of other issues that impact on this popular mountain.
These have now all been collated and included in a report and you have until Friday 7 July to make your views on the plan and the proposals for the future managment of Snowdon known.
In addition, there is also a public drop-in event during the consultation period so that you can share your feedback face to face:
The BMC will also be attending a seminar at a later date to discuss the responses and will be submitting its own response on behalf of its members.
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