Around 100 people gathered at Ynyslas on Saturday to protest the closure of the popular beach's visitor centre along with two others.

On Monday, retail and catering ceased at Bwlch Nant yr Arian, Coed y Brenin and Ynyslas visitor centres as Natural Resources Wales looks to cut costs.

The visitor centres at all three sites will then be closed for the foreseeable future.

NRW says it is keen to find partners to run the centres, but that process has not yet begun, much to the frustration of community groups who want to take over the centres and stop the doors from closing.

NRW said retail and catering provision will cease at three three sites on Monday, but stipulated that paths, trails, car parks, play areas and toilet facilities will remain open.

NRW added: "We would like to reassure the public that the important work undertaken to protect wildlife and maintain these sites will continue to be overseen by our land management staff."

Elsie Grace, NRW’s Head of Sustainable Commercial Development, said: “We understand how important our sites are to local communities and visitors and I would like to thank everyone who has shown an interest and shared correspondence with us about this issue.

“We want to reiterate and reassure the public that all paths, trails, car park, play area and toilet facilities will remain open and the management of the sites will remain with our land management staff as it is currently.

“We are now firmly focused on the process to find partners to register an interest in providing services at Bwlch Nant yr Arian and Coed y Brenin.

“We are currently finalising how and when we will go to market for these opportunities and we hope to communicate more information soon.

“We would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we know you are keen to know what is coming next, but we want to make sure we get it right to avoid confusion and any potential issues in the future.

“It is important to take the necessary time now for a smooth process later.

“We would again like to thank everyone for their interest and passion with regards to our sites as we move ahead with the next phase of the process.”

Ynyslas will not be offered for commercial use and NRW will be looking at community uses for the site.

NRW was accused of having very little empathy or understanding over people’s concerns.

Labour’s Carolyn Thomas told a Senedd Climate Committee meeting: “I feel like it’s not been handled very well, there was very little communication and empathy with people, the communities involved.”

MS Mabon ap Gwynfor said the closure of the three centres was ‘totally avoidable’ and shows they were never serious about engaging with local communities.

Mr ap Gwynfor has repeatedly called on the Welsh Government to provide the necessary £1.2 million to NRW to maintain all their centres for a year to give time to community groups to put together their business plans.