Killing The Golden Goose?

'The access to the area is being commandeered' is a typical response to the Snowdonia Green Key Partnership 'local transport initiative' we reported on recently (see link below). 'The local populations are having their free access to their own surrounds stolen, to be returned to them at a special rate!'

There's a strong emerging local feeling that the development is a nakedly commercial scheme aimed not so much at improving transport facilities as fleecing tourists and controlling access to the Snowdonia National Park.

The first casualties of such a scheme, say opponents, would be climbers, walkers and mountain bikers who, deprived of existing parking areas and forced onto inflexible buses, would simply abandon the area and go elsewhere.

An active internet protest group with its own site has already emerged here under the slogan 'Freedom to Choose - Snowdonia' with a protest meeting due to be held at the Bryn Tyrch Hotel, Capel Curig on Sunday 27 January.

The scheme envisages visitors being welcomed to 'gateway towns', thought to be Betws y Coed and Llanberis, where there would be park and ride facilities to reach the walking and hiking areas of the Park and there are fears that current parking would be severely restricted to the detriment of both locals and visitors.

The follow-on would be the development of businesses to exploit the concentration of visitors in the gateway towns, though existing local businesses fear this would mean the introduction of large fast food outlets and similar, again to their detriment.

Obviously most rational people would support proposals that improved public transport and made it a feasible option, but the fear is that these proposals, as the stand, would 'kill the golden goose' and walkers and climbers would be the first to be excluded.