CAMPAIGNERS hoping to designate the Cambrian Mountains as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) have handed a petition of more than 12,500 calling for the move into the Senedd.

The Cambrian Mountains Society (CMS) launched a petition to protect the region earlier this year, saying that “AONB designation would bring balance between development, local communities’ needs and people’s need for green space.”

It is now expected that the bid for AONB status will be debated in the Senedd.

The handover team - including two youngsters 13-year-old Tilly Elliott and 14-year-old Joe Loughman - are now “urging the Senedd to prioritise the issue of protecting the Cambrian Mountains for the benefit of future generations”, CMS said.

“Conservation of these uplands gets little attention,” the petition said.

“Farms are bought up for conifer planting or for large wind farms despite the lack of infrastructure.

“So beautiful a region needs protection and longer term rural employment.”

The Cambrian uplands spread across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Powys, and includes exceptional glaciated plateaux, lakes, mountain rivers and valleys and host a wide range of threatened plants and animals – yet are the only area in Wales to have no formal protection whatsoever.

Dwynwen Belsey, Cambrian Mountains Society spokesperson said: “The public’s support for protecting this unique area has been overwhelming. “Action, however, is long overdue, and the area urgently needs AONB status, so that these exceptional landscapes can be maintained and enhanced. “AONB status would, for example, enable conservation groups to replant traditional oak woodland – replacing what has been lost.

“We would also work with farmers, to ensure that their traditional association with the land - an association that goes back 1,000 years, but is now in danger of being supplanted by commercial interests - can be retained and enhanced for the next thousand years.”

The campaign for AONB status has been backed by numerous high-profile supporters including Iolo Williams, TV naturalist, who is the Cambrian Mountains Society’s president; Sir Simon Jenkins, former Times editor, current Guardian columnist, and former chair of the National Trust; celebrated author and award-winning journalist, Neil Ansell; and BBC broadcaster and writer, Mary Colwell.

Sir Jenkins said it was a “tragic mistake”, that a plan to make the area a National Park back in the 1970s did not go through, leading to the “gradual erosion of the visual beauty of central Wales.”

The petition was presented at the Senedd to petitions committee members on 4 October.

The Cambrian Mountains form the ‘backbone’ of Wales, and run from historic Pumlumon in the north, to Rhandirmwyn in the south.

The mountains run through the three counties of Powys, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.

The area is known for its miles of stunning, unbroken views and is also hugely important for biodiversity.