From the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8508637.stm :

A town on the edge of Snowdonia is a step closer to joining the national park which flanks it.

The Snowdonia National Park Authority voted on Wednesday to back "in principle" the idea of Blaenau Ffestiniog becoming part of the park.

The matter will now be discussed by the Countryside Council for Wales, and then the Welsh Assembly.

If they back the proposals, a referendum will be held in Blaenau Ffestiniog to gauge public opinion.

In September local councillor Gwilym Euros Roberts said he believed the move would benefit both the town and park, and add value to tourism.

Blaenau Ffestiniog was not originally included because when the park was being developed urban and industrial areas were not included, but times had changed, he added.

If I recall correctly, Rhosydd is outwith the boundaries of the National Park, as it was considered that it might be untopped in the future.

This proposal would presumably spell and end to that, albeit the odds of it happening would have to be considered pretty minimal in the foreseeable future.

Presumably the same would apply to Cwmorthin, although I'd guess that all the untopping that was practically possible has already been done.

I'm still a little confused as to the benefits of bringing Blaenau Ffestiniog itself into the National Park, mind... ::)

---

Indeed, meaning the CRTT is a route out of the park.

---

or into it...

Has that been done?

I have only ever heard of folk going one way.

---

The original trip was done for the very first time from the Rhosydd end - it involved abseiling down into the 'chamber of horrors' and then walking along the level that's one down from the adit, albeit it was very wet.

The current trip is certainly 'do-able' from the Rhosydd end, but as it would involve a couple of big ascents, it's not that appealing.

I think I might also be inclined to check the ropes before I went through from the Rhosydd end as ascending may run the risk of putting a lot more stress / rubbing on them.

---

I imagine that Blaenau would be in line for some huge handouts if it were to become inside the NP.

Of course, it would also kiss goodbye to any vestiges of industry and jobs (apart from tourism related ones).

I'm sure they've done the sums.

Chris.

This will be the final nail in the coffin for Blaenau's Quarrys. No more development, no mor un-topping and no more jobs. Blaenau MUST remain out of the dreaded national park. The park is nothing more than a hindrance and an extra level of red tape and burocrasy that we can do well without.

---

This will be the final nail in the coffin for Blaenau's Quarrys. No more development, no mor un-topping and no more jobs. Blaenau MUST remain out of the dreaded national park. The park is nothing more than a hindrance and an extra level of red tape and burocrasy that we can do well without.

Yeh but it might produce a few minimum wage, part time visitors centre jobs.......

How come they are able to carry on extracting limestone on a large scale from the Peak, then?

The Peak of where Pete?

I don 't think so jagman - the national park closed Blaenau Ffestiniog's visitor center down last season....

And to be honest i prefer my higher than national minimum wage and FULL time job..... but i thank you for your concern.

---

"The Peak" as in "District".

my "appologies" as in "sorry"! 😉

---

And to be honest i prefer my higher than national minimum wage and FULL time job..... but i thank you for your concern.

Ah but thats not the modern way Dylan!!!!
Remember last month when the unemployment figures came out and 7000 less people were unemployed?
Should be really good news but its a clever bit of trickery that fails to show that 100,000 jobs that were full time last year have reduced the hours and are now part time this year.

Peter - when the boundaries of the Peak District National Park were drawn up, they were drawn up in such a way as to carefully EXCLUDE the majority of quarries in the Peak District!

For example in the Matlock area, the Peak Park boundary runs down the eastern boundary of Jugholes Wood and Tearsall (which was not quarried then but a easy trip into old workings), this then excluded the opencast workings on Masson Hill, all the Matlock quarries, Cromford, Wirksworth, Middleton and the Via Gellia. The ICI ones on the Ashbourne/Buxton road south of Buxton were excluded and presumably the ones at Dove Holes north of Buxton too.

I was working in administration in Derbyshire County Architect's department at the time the Peak District National Park (the first National Park in the UK) came into being - from memory about 1948/49. I always remember the Chairman of Derbyshire County Council (the labour councillor Charles White from Tansley - he who decided in his wisdom to move the County Offices from the administrative County Town of Derby north to Matlock - conveniently on his doorstep - to the white elephant of an old Hydro i.e. Smedley's Hydro at a vast expense to rate-payers in 1956. It's been renamed as the County Hall but is known locally as the "Kremlin") being presented with a new chain of office by the Head Director of Derbyshire Stone Ltd., the main quarrying firm in the Matlock area. Being very young then I viewed this action without suspicion, but having become wise over the years it makes one think! Especially with all the then Derbyshire Stone quarries being excluded from the Peak Park. Just think of the beauty of Matlock Bath and the Via Gellia, why should this beautiful scenery have been excluded from the Peak Park? Answer - because it lay within a quarrying area.

The worse thing that happened to the Peak District was the granting of the open-ended 1952 Mineral Planning Consents which virtually allowed mineral contractors to do what they wanted. Thich was okay in those early times with much more manual labour and smaller machinery involved, but with the hugh machines and less labour intensive quarrying methods of today, these very old original planning consents are flaunted and used by present day quarry firms within the Peak Park to wreck havoc, which is the reason for many of the battles one has seen in recent years i.e. Great Longston north of Bakewell etc.

Quarrying has always been a major business in the Peak District and always will be whilst the rest of the UK want buildings, roads constructed, coal fired power stations, sugar beet factories etc. It was one of the main industries of the area and provided work and wages long before the Peak Park became a tourist attraction. Luckily when I lived in the Peak District (a slightly different geographical area than the Peak Park) I lived just outside the boundaries of the Park, so I was able to enjoy the Park without the restraints of living in it.

A while ago it was planned to give National Park status to the New Forest in Hampshire to the west of where I live now. There was a lot of discussion and many people wanted to live within the boundaries. Since then the New Forest has become a National Park and quite a few people have become disillusioned about living within one.

I cannot see any advantage at all in Blaenau ffestiniog being in the National park.
It would only create more restrictions and problems regarding planning and of business use of buildings, quarries etc by giving more power to the little Hitlers at the Snowdonia N.P office.
What advantage would there be by being in the park??
Would it create more real employment? And I don't mean seasonal minimum wage (£5.50 -£6 p.h.) type of jobs.
And it would not give the area less rain!

---

Someone at work yesterday said that when he visited the BF area, he had to think carefully whether he had suddenly suffered an unusual eye condition wherein he lost colour vision, as everything went monochrome as he drove into the valley.

He should have gone to to 'Specsavers' 😉

---

Someone at work yesterday said that when he visited the BF area, he had to think carefully whether he had suddenly suffered an unusual eye condition wherein he lost colour vision, as everything went monochrome as he drove into the valley.

That will all change, with lights illuminating the Oakeley main incline and the zig zag Miner's Path! :guns: :guns:

Someone at work yesterday said that when he visited the BF area, he had to think carefully whether he had suddenly suffered an unusual eye condition wherein he lost colour vision, as everything went monochrome as he drove into the valley.

That will all change, with lights illuminating the Oakeley main incline and the zig zag Miner's Path! :guns: :guns:

yea black pool bach lol

---

Undoubtably the ideal and creation of National Parks in the UK is to the benefit of the nation. Although not wishing to be seen as an anti NP activist I feel it can and does sometimes have negative effects and powers given to such Authorities can and do get abused depending of course on your view point.

It is very hard to bring all the fors and againsts together easily. The main problem is that immediately a NP is set up it becomes by default a desirable place to live for many reasons. One such reason being, general planning of any description is very much more tightly controlled than outside of it's boundaries and generally major industry of any description becomes a target for those who invest in becoming part of that desirable place. They are the NIMBYS. They do not want the value of their own personal investment devalued by in the case of quarrying, the scar on the landscape, the noise, dust and associated vehicle movements.

Sadly though it is not the end of the story and as we all know. Such people lobby and bring pressure to bear on NPA's. Both the lobbyists/NPAs have great backers/powers respectively and usually end up using them with scant regard to those who lived and worked there long before their (NPA) inception. They also do not restrict their activities to just industry and farming gets a fair battering too. I've said this many times before but it saddens me that the very reason such areas are as they are is due only to the activities of man himself over the ages. In times past people did not generally build hamlets clinging to mountain sides solely for the view, it was because work was there and there was no transport.

Sougher has made some good points regarding the country's needs, the 1952 Mineral Consent and the exclusion of some areas to allow quarrying to continue with regard to the PDNP. Living as I now do actually in the PDNP as opposed to before where I was in the A6 corridor little has changed for me. But think on this...............

Some years ago the PDNP were concerned about increased road traffic to the Park. With an ever increasing surrounding population, with more disposable income where nicer to go in your new car at weekends, indeed with an increasing retirement generation, during the week too. Park and ride is one answer. But another more sinister one is that of access permits. I freely admit I don't know what the current status of this one is but with emerging technologies such as GPS/vehicle recognition etc it would not be hard to implement, indeed its just London on a bigger scale. Would tourism be such an attractive reason for continued employment then??

So BF think long and hard before you sell off the silver. You never know someone might find a miracle use for slate like putting it on the roof of your house to keep the rain out. Especially when some university don works out the real cost of the carbon footprint of bringing in slate from elsewhere actually exceeds a home produced one.
BF is there because of slate as I understand. By joining the National Park apart from attracting money it will just become more restrictive. Can't an impetus be found to generate any needed money for whatever development is needed by other means. This then gives BF the freedom to decide on its own ground what happens and leaves the door open for the future. By joining the NP you are effectively putting BF in a time capsule an handing overall control to others. BF being so close to the SNP can always make it known that they adopt the principles of NP planning. I understand this type of thinking is done in other parts of the country allowing the freedom where necessary.

If you haven't already fallen asleep here's a little story from some years ago. While pulling down and regenerating Manchester Docks/Salford Quays I had the opportunity of doing an article for the then Canal Boat Magazine on Manchester's Canals during the lead up to the National IWA Rally. During my research I was invited to the Salford Quays Development Office to see the planned vision. At the time the view from what was the old dock gates was flat as far as Barton and I mean flat. All gone, rail lines everything.
After having seen this a thought occurred to me and I asked one of the development personnel how much did they anticipate in using the Manchester Ship Canal and others that fed into it in bringing materials to and moving around the site. All I got in response was a blank look and the passing comment by road naturally. But you have a canal and until just recently rail lines........ totally ignored.

The next phase of the Docks development is now well under way that of Media City. Again I'll hazard a guess that not one load has arrived by canal. I'm not saying that it must but I bet no one has even considered the alternatives. Although the owners of the site Peel Holdings will not have missed a trick and I'm sure they will have considered it.

Around this time Manchester Airport was also being extended and yes materials were too being brought from the Peak Park some I believe by rail. You see its not all bad the quarry owners do use the rail links when they can.

We need even more so these days people who can stand back and see a bigger picture, that have vision and the ability to think in joined up writing.

Short term gain ............ long term pain.