You may have seen Coed y Brenin in the news a lot lately with many articles about the possible closure of the visitor centre and changes to the services at the site. Here is a little insight to the story and where we are not...
At the end of last year, Natural Resources Wales confirmed that they intend to close the visitor centre and cafe at Coed y Brenin. This means that from 31st March 2025 the main (round) visitor centre building will close altogether. No more cafe, gift shop or information desk and from what we have been told so far it appears that there will be no NRW staff working from the site at all. Beics Brenin will remain open and continue to run the trailhead bike shop and bike hire from our existing location but we are unsure at this stage how the visitor centre closure will impact our business and therefore, how long our business will remain sustainable if visitor numbers drop significantly.
As to the reasons why this is happening, people will have to make up their own minds. NRW’s position is that budgetary cuts have led to them needing to take very tough decisions to cover a 13 million shortfall in their budget and that this was the only route for them to preserve the core services that they are legally bound to deliver. However, NRW has many critics, and it has been suggested that inefficiencies, negligence and waste are rife in the organisation. An ITV expose on the organisation entitled ‘Not Really Working’ ( https://www.itv.com/walesprogrammes/articles/wales-this-week-nrw-not-really-working ) contained statements from NRW whistle blowers and others, outlining operational problems and questioned the organisation’s ability to deliver in many areas of their work and service provision.
Many believe that closure of the visitor centres was avoidable and campaigners have pushed back against the decision, organising a Senedd petition that received over 13,000 signatures ( https://business.senedd.wales/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=44373) and multiple well-attended campaign rallies at the 3 locations which gained the support of local politicians and received coverage from news sites and on television.
Early in 2024, when the news first broke that NRW was reviewing the role of the visitor centres it operates, a public meeting was hastily organised to discuss these developments. The meeting took place in Ganllwyd village hall, just down the road from Coed y Brenin. The hall was packed with people concerned and angered by NRW’s plans. However, at that time nothing was confirmed and no final decision had been taken and NRW stated that closure was being considered but was unlikely.
Following the meeting, a group of stakeholders and community representatives came together and formed Caru Coed y Brenin, with a mission to try to prevent the closures of the centre, or failing that, to peruse a more stable and secure future for Coed y Brenin under community management.
On 31st July 2024, NRW confirmed in an announced to their staff that they intended to close the visitor centres as part of a package of measures they called "The case for change" that would see 265 jobs cut in an effort to plug the 13 million hole in their finances by 1st April 2025. After this, NRW and its staff entered into a 45 day period of consultation with unions which ended with the announcement that it was confirmed that the visitor centres would be closed on March 31st 2025.
In response, Caru Coed y Brenin organised Y Brotest Fawr (The big protest) which took place on 5th October 2024 and drew together people from across all Coed y Brenin’s user communities to protest the closure plan. Local politicians Liz Saville-Roberts and Mabon ap Gwynfor of Plaid Cymru attended and spoke passionately about the importance of preserving these valuable community assets and of their importance to the economic wellbeing of the area. Mabon ap Gwynfor continued this fight by tabling a motion to Senedd in January 2025 which proposed NRW should provide a continuity solution and make efforts to engage with local representative groups such as Caru Coed y Brenin in an effort to expedite the process of finding a new management solution to deliver the services being cut at the site and to do this in a way that would see the least possible interruption to services. Sadly, this motion was defeated by Welsh Labour 24 votes to 22.
At a series of public meetings held late in 2024, NRW stated that they did intend to seek alternate providers for Bwlch Nant yr Arian and Coed y Brenin but no dates or clear instruction on tenders were offered at the time. Recently, a community engagement page has been set up by the organisation with some additional information and FAQs but there still appears to be no confirmed plans to tender services or any timescale offered. In addition some drop-in sessions were held but it is our understanding that no further information was provided beyond the previous announcements that the organisation has made. https://ymgynghori.cyfoethnaturiol.cymru/communications-cyfathrebu/update/
As of today, Thursday 30th January we still have no clear instruction from NRW as to what will happen after the visitor centre closes on 31st March, nor have we been given any date or information about a new tender for the provision of cafe and visitor centre services at Coed y Brenin or any interim provision to cover any of these services.
With the closure date now only 2 months away we are hopeful that we will receive an update from the organisation soon, and will be able to update here in due course. It is clear that the closure will have a profound impact on the site and on visitor experience but we will continue to do our best to provide a warm welcome to visitors.
Everyone at Beics Brenin is eager to see progress and to do what we can to help assist in a smooth transition to whatever comes next for Coed y Brenin. We hope that soon we will be able to update here again and provide more information to our customers, many of whom we know are already making plans to visit in the spring and summer of 2025 and will be eager to know what is happening at the site and what services they can expect.
You can find links to many more articles following the story on this page HERE