Whilst sympathising with the objectives and intent of the document, there was a unanimous rejection of the proposals pertaining to restricted parking, compulsory bus access to the hills and the establishment of gateway 'honey pots'.

Individual members will write to you to with their concerns, however, on behalf of the club I have tried to summarise the points actually discussed at the AGM:

RESTRICTED PARKING WOULD NOT ACHIEVE HIGHER SPENDING IN THE AREA

The urban conurbations of Northern England and the Midlands have ready access Snowdonia, the Lakes and to the Peak national parks making day trips from these areas feasible. Climbing trips to the hills for us and for those in Greater London and the South, on the other hand, requires at least a weekend trip. For us, it is about 5 hours drive to the Lakes or to Snowdonia. Public transport is entirely impractical for a weekend. Once in the area, we will spend two nights eating and drinking out and will spend money in outdoor shops. We, along with many others, visit Snowdonia primarily for the hills. Forced into the proximity of shopping 'attractions' whilst making access to the hills much less convenient for us will mean that we will simply not organise our weekends there. It is interesting to note that the Lakes, whose business model you clearly wish to emulate, rejected similar proposals because they were recognised as counter productive.

SAFETY

The hills of Snowdonia can be hazardous, especially in winter. To maximise the use of daylight hours, it is not uncommon for people to want to start early and leave late. There was a concern that unless buses were running nearly 24 hours, this would simply not be possible (and it was felt that the business case for buses certainly wasn't based on 24 hour service). Of even more concern, however, was the possibility of having to stand and wait for a bus after a big day in winter. Even 20 minutes standing in the rain inactive (or a further 5 miles of walking if the buses aren't running) is a recipe for hypothermia.

ENVIRONMENTAL

Restricting parking has little impact in terms of pollution, since most driving is done to get to the national park, not once there. There will be an impact in terms of erosion, however, as people will be channelled to more restricted access points such as Pen y Pass and will arrive in larger numbers in one go (literally by the bus load).

WHAT CAN BE DONE ?

A flexible system whereby you could either park on outskirts and bus in OR park more centrally at a price seems like the best option. Improving public transport so that walkers and climbers would have the option to do long linear walks and easily return to their cars would be good. BUT, a system whereby the only way to access, say Tryfan, was via public transport would have the opposite effect on many walkers and climbers to that Gwynedd council predict. we would propose that you retain some long stay parking and turn these areas into Pay & Display areas (as is currently the case at Ogwen Cottage). This would raise valuable funds and at least give climbers and walkers an option. Those who wish to park 'locally' can pay a premium while those using the P&R can pay a proportionately lower rate. 

One proposals made (4.8 in the strategy document) is to utilise roadside space in order to create 'safe cycle and pedestrian routes'. This will at best produce a corridor alongside which the cyclist/pedestrian will have to endure a continued stream of heavy goods vehicles and coaches which will continue to make use of the main road system in the area. There is no indication why visitors should be attracted to use such developments which would offer an environment little better than the average urban clearway. On the other hand the disused road and rail system along the arterial routes in question could be economically developed into cycle ways and better pedestrian routes which would provide a realistic attraction to visitors and may actually increase visitor numbers to the area. This particular proposal in the consultation document provides little more than an unsustainable reason for completely removing roadside parking along these highways.

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