Huge turnout in bid to save Bwlch Nant yr Arian visitor centre
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00:00Me and Ellen Jones and Ben and a few officers have met up with NLW to try and get some answers
00:14and hopefully, like Sukhi said, we are working closely with local interest parties, so hopefully
00:22we have got some news, but unfortunately we aren't able to share it at the moment. But
00:26hopefully there will be a future for this place, which is very important for myself,
00:30you as cyclists, you as walkers, for the well-being of Ceredigion and also far and beyond. I'd
00:36just like to take this opportunity and thank you all for turning up and I hope Bwch Llandardian
00:42will have a bright future and we'll have some news in due course, hopefully, and we'll be
00:48more than welcome to share with you.
00:50This is one of those rare, precious commodities that's important for the local community but
00:56also important for the visitor community as well, and it meets the aspirations of everybody
01:03that has an interest in outdoor sight. We all know that we want it, that it's needed
01:08in this area and that we can make it work for this area into the future. It may not
01:13be NRW, but it could be somebody else and it could be better than it is even today.
01:19So we need to make that happen quite quickly. So all the efforts you talked about, making
01:24sure that everybody moves quickly on this is important as well. So when you write to
01:31NRW, make sure that you want to say that you want to keep this fantastic provision, every
01:38single element of it, the trails, the feeding of the kites and all the facilities here,
01:45you want to keep it, you want to develop it and you want to make sure that NRW don't
01:50mothball it. That's the worst possible thing that could happen now, is that NRW mothballs
01:56this site and these facilities. So don't mothball this site is my overriding call to
02:05NRW because if you lose it, if it closes for the short term, you may not regain the momentum
02:12on this site. So the visitor centres, then what will the next step be? Will it be trails
02:18beyond that? We've already seen a decrease in the maintenance of trails and the management
02:23of trails as budgets have tightened. And we're really frightened that this will just be the
02:27first step in a decline in these great visitor centre attractions. They bring people from all
02:32over the world. Part of my job as well is organising events that we hold in Coed Brennan
02:37and elsewhere. And I'm often amazed when I look at the maps, the hotspot maps for where people
02:45are signing up to come to our velds. We've got people travelling from all over Europe and even
02:50from the US to come and take part in events that we're holding here at Coed Brennan, at Nanterrarion
02:56and other locations. So these centres are of real value to people. They're very, very important.
03:03We need to make sure that everyone is working, doing everything they can at the moment to raise
03:09their voices about this and stop NRW from closing the centres. Because as I say, if they close,
03:16there's a good chance that it's going to be very, very difficult for them to reopen again.
03:22I don't want to see the commercialisation of everything, of all of these sites becoming
03:27shuttered and paywalled, if you like, for people to gain access to them. So we really hope that
03:33community voices can come together and make enough noise that we can find a way to transition this
03:40model into the next stage, into whatever it is going to become. Something hopefully very,
03:44very bright and prosperous for all of the people that everyone can keep access to,
03:51and that Coed Brennan and Nanterrarion and Inys Las can continue to prosper and thrive
03:57for the future. But just don't let them shut the doors, whatever you do,
04:01because we are really worried that once that happens, there will be no turning back.
04:08Let's see what we can do. I know nothing about cycling, no more than I knew about
04:12funicular railways 20 years ago. But for those of you who do know the history of how we've
04:18turned the fortunes of the Cliff Railway, I thought that I could help in trying to do the
04:25same for here. We're a group of trustees. Everything we make goes back into it.
04:37The way I've looked at it from what I've seen so far is that, you know, as I know nothing about
04:42motorbikes and things, I'd be expecting, you know, the people who do to look after that side.
04:50I know how to get a restaurant going. That's one thing I'm very good at. So
04:53that's one thing. And we would like it to stay as it is, but it has to be
04:59commercialized. It's not a nice word, but it has to pay for itself because the days of grants and
05:06things like that from governments and things, as things are now, are tight. But I'm confident that
05:13we could return the fortunes of it quite easily, to be honest. If we were going by our model,
05:20we would set up a charitable foundation. And the same as you have a trading arm which runs things
05:27like the cafes and things, it's how the Charities Commission works. So we would be looking at
05:34helping to do that. We have the know-how to settle that now. And, you know, a few of our
05:42trustees are keen to have to start off with. And then we would add trustees as we got the
05:46company going from all of you, from the bike side, from the walkers, from whoever wanted to be.