Visitors to Snowdonia face increased car parking charges. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
Snowdonia National Park Authority will cut back on its rights of way work and seek to increase income from its car parks, following a reduction of almost £800,000 in its budget.
Members voted to implement a package that will lead to further job losses, the authority said.
A spokesperson said it was faced with difficult decisions following the cut in grant from the Welsh Government, which equates to a 5 per cent reduction over the next two years. Three-quarters of the national park’s cash comes from the Cardiff administration, with the remaining funding coming from local authority levies.
A meeting of the authority at the Plas Tan y Bwlch education centre on Wednesday agreed the measures.
Chief executive Emyr Williams said: “It’s a difficult and extremely worrying time for us as staff and for authority members.
“We have already lost 40 valuable jobs in the past 10 years, which is a huge loss to this rural area. Today we have had to consider more job losses, although we need to accomplish more now than at any other time in our history.”
Snowdonia national park chief executive Emyr Williams. Photo: Alan Dop
Among plans agreed were an increase of £232,684 in income mainly from car parks and fees at Plas Tan y Bwlch.
It was also agreed savings of £170,018 could be made in several ways, including providing more information electronically rather than on paper, closing toilets at Morfa Dyffryn and reducing the workload of internal audit.
Authority members were told savings of £295,727 can be made during 2018-19 and 2019-2020 by reducing grants for tree work, reducing spending on public rights of way and reducing spending on contractors. “Unfortunately, these steps will unavoidably impact jobs within the authority,” the spokesperson said.
Chair of the authority Owain Wyn said: “It has been a gruelling task for members to decide how we deliver our services, prioritise those services that are essential in delivering our purposes and trying to protect as many jobs as possible at the same time.
“Unfortunately, given these circumstances, we had no option other than to consider redundancies, even though this will have a detrimental effect on our work.”
Further consultation will now take place with staff who face losing their jobs.
Alan Sloman
07 February 2018Why not tap up BP? The arts luvvies in London don't want their funding anymore so it's a golden opportunity for BP to get rid of sponsoring them and put their money to good use where it will be appreciated, in our National Parks. Everyone drives to the car parks so there'll be no problems there with the sponsorship! :-)
Mike D
08 February 2018Any business receiving a government subsidy (renewables. grants etc) situated in the National Park should pay 25% of the subsidy to the National Park authority.
Steuart
08 February 2018I was there two years ago and the charge for the Snowdon car park was £10. The Ben Nevis car park is free? where is the money going?
M f
08 February 2018Cuts will be made at the bottom end the chief executives will carry on as normal
Sheepy
08 February 2018How about a levy on fast food companies with more than 30 outlets in the UK. We could call it the wellness tax.
Let's call it 1% of UK turnover. We could also create some extra jobs for litter patrols whilst we are at it and if any more than say 10 rubbish items per month ie cups, boxes, bags etc are found within the boundaries of the National Park then that levy is increased to 5% for the following 12 months.
This could be seen as supporting areas that generally help people with both physical and mental health and I'll guarantee the whole country would be cleaner in an instant.
I would go further and also add drinks companies to that as well, both soft drinks and alcohol.
If it was successful it could be rolled out across the country to all local authorities and would help with their budget deficits as well.
Wonder what the Chief Exec gets paid? I bet he doesn't take a pay cut.
Don Snow
09 February 2018Perhaps some of the savings could be found by cutting the budget for giant capitalised glass signs on hillsides? Just a thought.
Sheepy
09 February 2018http://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/15982415.Pendle_Hill_partnership_receives___1_8_million_lottery_cash/?ref=mr&lp=17
Looks like some outdoor areas can get funding.