I am writing in response to the Consultation Draft of the Snowdonia Green Key Strategy Statement. I am sending my response in the form of a letter because to answer the questions on the official Response Form would not adequately express my opinions or those of my colleagues.

I am writing in my capacity as Chair of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors. This Association is a UK organisation, but there are one hundred and forty members living and working in North Wales, which is approximately one fifth of the membership.

Members of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors hold one of two qualifications, the Mountain Instructor Award or the Mountain Instructor Certificate. The first is a summer qualification, while the second is valid for winter conditions also.

Most AMI members make their living through taking small groups of students into the mountains and onto cliffs for rock climbing. Some do this as school teachers and some work in outdoor education centres. Some have their own small businesses where they find groups of clients and arrange mountain training to their requirements.

All these forms of activity bring benefits to North Wales. In the case of the school teachers, it is local children whose education is enriched by the opportunity to explore the beautiful and challenging mountain environment of Snowdonia.

In the case of the outdoor education centres, a considerable number of jobs of various types are sustained, and goods and services are purchased locally.

The private clients of Mountain Instructors often stay in local hotels and guest houses, and visit cafes, restaurants, pubs and shops in the Snowdonia villages.

A knowledge of and consideration for the mountain environment is a most important part of the training of Mountain Instructors, and this is always passed on to clients and students. Naturally, safety training is also a very important element of our work, and we are teaching future mountain leaders and single pitch rock climbing leaders as well as participants in mountain activities. It follows that a further benefit to Snowdonia of the work of Mountain Instructors is that we are training other and future mountain users to be safe, responsible and environmentally aware.

The work of Mountain Instructors is very varied, but it does require having convenient access to the mountains throughout the year, and throughout the day and occasionally the night as well. Sometimes a very early start is required to achieve a particular mountain training objective, and sometimes it is necessary to train our students to travel in the mountains during the hours of darkness. Sometimes we experience problems and our return to the valley is much later than expected. Sometimes changes in the weather or crowding at a particular climbing area cause us to change our plans and move to a different venue for training.

I have read the Snowdonia Green Key Strategy Statement and I agree with many of its aims and objectives.

I think an improved public transport system would be most beneficial to the area. I think additional public footpaths and cycleways would be excellent. I think moves to help the area to benefit from tourism but without damage to the environment would be admirable.

However, I cannot agree with some of the measures proposed in the Strategy Statement because they will cause great inconvenience to the members I represent, and I do not think they will achieve that last objective of bringing further economic benefits from tourism.

I do not believe that any bus service which could realistically be provided in North Snowdonia would start early enough in the morning or finish late enough in the evening, or be frequent enough to meet the needs of Mountain Instructors and their clients. Indeed, if such a bus service could ever be provided, most of the buses would be empty or almost empty, and this would surely not be an environmentally superior way to transport people. I am no expert on this but it would seem to me that a car full of people must be less polluting than a bus empty or almost empty of people.

I believe that members of the Association of Mountain Instructors try hard to behave responsibly with regard to parking. When a group has several cars, the Instructor will arrange for extra vehicles to be left in a village car park and just the minimum number of vehicles be taken onto mountain roads. Mountain Instructors do not park on verges or obstruct farm gateways. At those few times of year when the car parks at Pen y Pass or Ogwen cottage are full they will either go elsewhere, use a bus or arrange to be dropped off at the start of their day.

I talk to many Mountain Instructors every week, and the majority opinion is that there is not a problem with overcrowding on the roads of Snowdonia, and that there is not a problem with regard to parking, or certainly not one which requires drastic measures to solve. Neither do I hear Mountain Instructors complaining about the visual impact of cars parked in laybys and car parks in the mountains. I think there is an acceptance that Snowdonia attracts many people who love the mountains, and we tolerate the presence of the cars because we like to see other people enjoying themselves, whether that means scaling the highest peaks or sitting in a layby enjoying the scenery.

As a resident of Llanberis, and someone who has lived in North Wales for fifteen years, the subject of the local economy is of concern to me. I would love to see Llanberis and the other villages enjoy a greater prosperity. However, I do not feel that the measures proposed in the Green Key Strategy set about achieving this in the best way. I think what tourists and mountain users are seeking above all is a sense of freedom. I believe that any strategy which tries to force people to park in large car parks in 'Gateway' villages and spend their money in particular places and travel by bus whether they want to or not will antagonise the visitor and could easily lead to a reduction in visitor numbers.

It is my belief that the visitor should be welcomed and provided with the facilities he or she wants to use. This type of policy would encourage more visitors to come, and would lead to more money being spent in local shops and businesses. I think that improvements to the possibilities for low level walking would be very much welcomed, with existing paths well marked and publicised, and perhaps some additional ones created. Public toilets which are open all year round would also be an advantage (I am thinking of the Y Glyn picnic site in Llanberis here).

So, to summarise, I represent about one hundred and forty people who work as Mountain Instructors in North Wales.

We are people who have the interests of the environment at heart, and also the interests of the local economy.

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