ON Wednesday last, this publication broke the news that all three NRW visitor centres across mid Wales are to close and staff have been put at risk of redundancy.

Narural Resources Wales staff at the three sites, Bwlch Nant yr Arian near Aberystwyth, Ynyslas and Coed y Brenin near Dolgellau, were told by email that they were at risk of redundancy. While NRW say that there are no confirmed dates for the closures, the Cambrian News is regrettably reporting from our sources that the site could theoretically close in a month.

The email seen by the Cambrian News from Elsie Grace, Head of Sustainable Commercial Development at NRW said: “The proposal is that NRW will no longer run any retail and catering provision at our visitor centres in the future and that they will close in the short-term while we scope for potential long-term partners, whether community-led or private sector.”

This is indeed a dark day for this region, for the people of Wales, and for the countless hundreds of thousands of tourists who have visited these site over the years.

Simply put, we at Cambrian News believe this should not be allowed to happen.

Right now, the Senedd is in the process of confirming a new First Minister for Wales, Eluned Morgan.

We believe that the first act on her first day in office should be to instruct the visitor centres to remain open and to find the funds within the Welsh Government to make sure this happens. That needs to be a priority and she must show her commitment to the people of mid Wales by keeping those centres open.

We too at Cambrian News are deeply disappointed that our call from four months ago, that a local task force be formed as a matter of urgency to try and save these vital resources for our communities, went unanswered.

This newspaper offered in this space to facilitate that, asking Ceredigion and Gwynedd council officials, our local MS’s, representatives from Aberystwyth University and tourism bodies if they would join and try to act with the closures looming.

We received not a single word from any of these bodies. And here we are now, with the closures now a certainty. Shame.