Decision makers need to know that there was overwhelming support for the conversion of the Bryniau Clwyd/Clwydian Range from an area of natural beauty to a national park. Of those who voted in the recent Rhuthun/Ruthin survey, over 75 per cent felt that the Range should be a new national park. Fewer than 25 per cent said that it should stay an AONB. No one at all was undecided.
If this represents Rhuthun, and perhaps even the wider area as a whole, you probably can't get anything clearer.
But what next? I wonder how people might've voted had they learnt that the UK's smallest national park to date, the Norfolk Broads, costs £4.3mil to fund.
Then again, at about 75p invested per visitor, this represents quite some value for money, given the tourism-related economic benefit to the region. Britain's third highest spending national park, Snowdonia, costs £1.38 per visitor and no one would suggest that's poor value for money. Any Clwydian Range national park need not necessarily cost much more than the current AONB structure which in itself is already spread across a partnership between two councils.
We've just enjoyed three heritage weekends, in Dinbych/Denbigh, Llangollen & Rhuthun. Many people benefited from exploring an area close at hand to them. How many more people might we expect were the Clwydians to receive the added benefit of national park status?
If this represents Rhuthun, and perhaps even the wider area as a whole, you probably can't get anything clearer.
But what next? I wonder how people might've voted had they learnt that the UK's smallest national park to date, the Norfolk Broads, costs £4.3mil to fund.
Then again, at about 75p invested per visitor, this represents quite some value for money, given the tourism-related economic benefit to the region. Britain's third highest spending national park, Snowdonia, costs £1.38 per visitor and no one would suggest that's poor value for money. Any Clwydian Range national park need not necessarily cost much more than the current AONB structure which in itself is already spread across a partnership between two councils.
We've just enjoyed three heritage weekends, in Dinbych/Denbigh, Llangollen & Rhuthun. Many people benefited from exploring an area close at hand to them. How many more people might we expect were the Clwydians to receive the added benefit of national park status?
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Clwydian Range