A national treasure that deserves to be recognised
Bubble — By Darren Millar AM on August 20, 2010 7:00 am
View from the top: the Clwydian range is home to some stunning landscapes
WALES is renowned for its beautiful National Parks and glorious landscapes. Our three National Parks – Snowdonia, the Brecon Beacons and the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path – cover some of the most stunning and imposing landscape in Wales. Not only are they the breathing spaces of our country, they also play a valuable role in supporting our local economies and are a considerable draw for the millions of tourists who flock to Wales every year.
But there is another national treasure that deserves to be promoted and protected as Wales’ newest National Park, and our first of the 21st Century. The Clwydian Range has just celebrated 25 years since it was named as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This milestone anniversary presents an opportunity to reflect on the status of this breathtakingly beautiful part of the country.
With heather hills, iron age hill forts and limestone cliffs, the Clywdian Range is a magnificent gateway to North East Wales. It forms a 35km north to south chain of hills stretching through the Vale of Clywd in the West to the foothills of the Dee Estuary to the east; from the Prestatyn Hillside in the North to the Nant y Garth pass in the South. It has a unique landscape, biodiversity and archaeology and is every bit as special as other places which enjoy National Park status.
Not only would national park status give the Clwydian Range the recognition it deserves, but the prestige associated with a National Park designation would also be hugely beneficial for the economy of North East Wales, which has been hit hard by the economic downturn, and provide a boost to tourism in the region.
The extent of the Clwydian range
While the primary purpose of Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Park designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the area, National Park status also has the purpose of promoting opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the area by the public. It is for this reason that communities and businesses associated with the Clwydian Range would benefit significantly if it were to be designated, especially in terms of opportunities to promote the area to locals and visitors.
There are currently 13 various National Parks in England and Wales. Each park is operated by its own National Park Authority, and in precise legal terms has two statutory purposes:
To conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the area.
To promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the park’s special qualities by the public.
For the Clwydian range to achieve National Park status it needs to be designated as such by the Countryside Council for Wales. I have already written to them making a formal request for designation. The three National Parks in Wales were all created in the 1950s and it is time we looked again at adding another for our nation. After all, National Parks are continuing to be created, with the New Forest being added in 2005 and the South Downs coming into designation just this year.
The Clwydian Range is a national treasure and it deserves to be protected, promoted widely, and enjoyed by all. If you’ve never been, why not think about a visit during the last few weeks of summer? You won’t be disappointed, and you’ll see for yourself just why it deserves to be Wales’ fourth National Park.
For updates on the campaign see my website or, alternatively, if you are a Facebook user, click here to sign up to the new online campaign which I’m launching today.
Tags: Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Clwydian Range, national park
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
2 Comments
Best of luck with the campaign. I’ve never walked the Clwydian Range and was looking for somewhere to go in mid-September, around Owain Glyndwr’s day on the 16th, so where better to go than his native hills.
Another area that needs to be protected is the Elenydd hills, the Cambrian mountains of mid-Wales that stretch from the Tywi and Irfon valleys in the south up to the Dyfi valley in the north. It’s a truly wild expanse where one can walk for days without seeing a soul, but which used to sustain a large community of hill-farmers and low-scale miners before the area was exploited irrevocably – it’s valleys flooded and dammed, its hills planted with the conifers of the forestry commission, its farmers evicted to provide firing ranges for the army on Epynt in the south-east of the Elenydd, its valleys used for reconnaissance and target practice for low-flying jets, and its peaks covered in huge wind turbines.
A special status for the Elenydd as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or as a National Park would protect its wild beauty from further abuse, particularly from the turbines, of which there are several hundred on the range already.
A good first step would be to give more pressure in opposing the Mersey-Dee Alliance that wishes to turn North-East Wales into a commuter housing estate for North West England. The intention of the alliance is to draw up a regional development plan that will give a course of action for housing, businesses and other facilities. The only problem is that Wales seems to only get housing whilst the businesses and other facilities – the important parts of ‘economic development’ – are on the other side of the border.
I would also like to raise the issue of the proposed housing estate for Bod-elwyddan that lies within the Vale of Clwyd, as shown on the map, which was opposed by a local population with a ‘No’ vote of around 90%.
Another thing that may help is if the Assembly stop thinking that Wales’ housing problems are uniform. Demographic changes and pressures on housing in South Wales are locally produced i.e. they move from one part of a valley to another. Demographic changes in North Wales are down to those wishing to retire to such beautiful areas of Wales, or those escaping from England’s inner city problems to quieter rural settings. In both cases, there are massive pressures on housing. Where will such housing schemes be located. Probably in the area.
Address these threats first and the task of protecting the Vale of Clwyd and surrounding areas will become easier, or is getting National Park status killing two birds with one stone, by putting a more or less blanket ban on large scale housing developments? If the latter happens, the pressure will be push on to other areas, equally as beautiful such as the Berwyn Mountains and Snowdonia.