A project in Criccieth has been featured at the Senedd in Cardiff to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Local Places for Nature programme.

One Voice Wales held the exhibition in Cardiff Bay on 27 November, including contributions from a selection of town and community councils across Wales that received funding through the programme.

The Cae Crwn, Criccieth project received £20,800 of funding in 2020 to establish community allotments, and a butterfly garden was part of the exhibition. Jackie Kirk and David Cassells, Friends of the Nature Garden members, and town clerk Catrin Jones represented the project, which is a partnership between town council, Friends of the Nature Garde, Gwynedd Council and Ysgol Treferthyr.

This joint effort has transformed a piece of wild and derelict land near the Nature Garden and the railway, where people can easily get to.

A total of £80k of funding has been invested on the site and a number of new projects are underway including a mushroom garden and a rainwater collection system. The work has been recognised nationally this year. The town council won the One Voice Wales Best Environmental Project initiative 2024, Community Management Social Farms and Gardens Award Best Use of Green Spaces, and was in the final three shortlisted for the Keep Wales Tidy "Nature Heroes" award.

The exhibition was sponsored by Carolyn Thomas MS, Labour Group's North Wales Regional Member, who said: “It was great to meet you today and learn about the great community project, you really brought it to life with the wonderful images and descriptions, showing the difference the Welsh Government’s Local Places for Nature funding through Rachel and One Voice Wales, has made. Thank you so much for taking time to visit the Senedd and all that you do for nature and the community. I look forward to visiting next summer.”

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS, Plaid Cymru Group Constituency Member Dwyfor Meirionnydd, said: "The Cae Crwn Scheme is amazing. A huge thank you to the volunteers who have put in so much to ensure this success. It is a project with social, educational and health value. These are the kind of projects that need to be supported and promoted.”

John Griffiths MS, Newport East Labuor Group Constituency said: “Bendigedig. So heartening to learn of community work for community benefit. Making for better quality of life, an improved environment and helping to meet the challenges of climate change. Keep up the good work!”

Geoff Robinson who works for the Welsh Government said it was "great to see the steps being taken to help biodiversity and efforts being made to encourage engagement with the community".

Catrin Jones, Clerk of Criccieth Town Council said: “Between Christmas and next summer we are organising visits to Cae Crwn by three of the members, namely

Carolyn Thomas, Mabon ap Gwynfor and Jack Sargeant MS, Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership.

“It was a very interesting and beneficial day sharing the successes of our project.”