Snowdon restoration project gets £1.8m boost

The money adds to funds raised by the region's Upland Footpath Partnership for Phase II of its restoration project in Snowdonia National Park. Launched by Welsh Assembly Environment Minister Sue Essex, this second phase has a total budget of £4million and is expected to run for five years. It will be targeted at eroded areas in the uplands of Eryri - specifically on Cadair Idris, the Snowdon Massif, the Carneddau and Glyderau. There'll be six locally recruited footpath restoration teams.

Snowdonia National Park's Chief Executive, Iwan Huws said: "This is excellent news for the Partnership. It will enable us to build on our previous work and tackle many of the more difficult erosion problems."

The Upland Footpath Partnership also hope that the work will be beneficial to areas already designated as having intrinsic conservation value, such as National Nature Reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest or proposed Special Areas of Conservation under the European Habitats Directive.