National Trust Fail - Pont ar Daf Car Park Chaos Continues
On May 28th 2023, we wrote ‘I predict that the verges along the A470 will remain engorged with cars parking, to avoid the charges and as overspill’.
On Saturday 1st February 2023, a cold and windy day, we noted that the A470 ‘s verges adjacent to the National Trust flagship car park at Pont ar Daf, the car park that services Pen y Fan, the highest peak in Southern Wales, and indeed Southern Britain, was, as we predicted, engorged with cars.
The project to redevelop the car park at Pont ar Daf was never needed. What was needed was the placement of barriers alongside the A470, precluding vehicles from dangerously parking alongside a busy trunk road, the local authority doing their job and maintaining the existing public toilets and a general tidying up of the area.
Had the authorities listened to Wales Outdoors, then huge savings would have been made and road safety improved. Indeed, the total cost of the car park development was £1.7 Million with a £0.5 Million contribution from the Welsh Government. The balance will have been made up by the local authority, Powys County Council, the BBNPA and by the NT.
Part of the planned redevelopment was the sighting of electric vehicle charge points at Pont ar Daf. We assume these were costed and grants allocated but to date they are nowhere to be seen… This does not bode well for the Welsh Government’s commitment to a green future for Wales.
After a couple of years or so of bedding in we can see that the new car park, with its increased capacity at a location that the authorities themselves state is fragile and should be seeing fewer visitors, despite being as attractive as any large car park can be, has failed in making safe the A470 trunk road and has failed electric vehicle owners.
The winners are the large event businesses, such as the charities that flood such locations from Spring to Summer with hundreds of non-tourists and non-hikers, in order to raise funds. These groups, that in the main do not respect the mountain environment and add no value to the local economy, we suggested, should be banned from weekend use. Well, that idea went far above the heads of the authorities…
Here are our blog posts detailing the effort we went to to save the taxpayer not a small amount of cash and to make safe the A470.
Get £10 Off the best Map App out there by signing up to our partner in the outdoors Outdoor Active
You can book our walks and tours through the Wales Outdoors Website.
1. Subscribing monthly via Substack
2. Making a one-off contribution via BuyMeACoffee
Your support is what allows these articles to keep being created and is enormously appreciated. Thank you.
