NOT for the first time has this publication called out Natural Resource Wales for misleading the Welsh Government over who does what at its three visitors centres slated for closure.

And here we go again.

NRW: Stop wilfully and maliciously spreading untruths about your staff at the visitors centres.

NRW are intent in offloading its three visitor centres at Ynyslas near Borth, Bwlch Nant yr Arian near Aberystwyth, and Coed y Brenin near Dolgellau, resulting in the loss of its staff at the sites.

The three sites are visited by some 750,000 annually but it seems as if the heartless and feckless agency hasn’t got the foggiest what its staff did.

NRW senior staff have been telling the Welsh Government that its employees are just retail operatives, serving teas and coffees, chocolate bars and sandwiches.

Not so.

So, Cardiff Bay, listen up.

The centre staff employed by NRW are the ones who look after the land, put the protected species lines out, and patrol the areas every day.

They’re the ones who cut back the overgrown vegetation, maintain the boardwalks and trails, keep the steps free of sand, mud and other impediments. Oh, and they pick up mounds of litter. And kilos of doggie doo.

These are the ones who educate and inform those 750,000 visitors of what they can see, what to expect, and what it’s like tending to some of Wales’ most unique environments and landscapes..

They are there to assist. They are there as stewards of the properties. They maintain them and keep the visitors safe and well. And when something happens, they go above and beyond their job descriptions.

That’s what they do.

They remove any illegal barbeques, make sure there’s no illegal camping going on and, in the case of Ynyslas, report the discovery of old ordnance that still turns up on the beach eight decades after the Second World War.

For the record, there are many thousands of acres in the three sites slated for closure. The NRW staff are the ones who make sure its protected, day in, day out, all year round.

Questions?