Local authority approves plans for new play area in Welsh Wildlife Centre

Bruce Sinclair, local democracy reporter

Plans for a new play area at the Welsh Wildlife Centre near Cardigan have been approved by Pembrokeshire County Council.

The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales (WTSWW), the fourth-largest Wildlife Trust in the UK, sought permission for a children’s play area comprising timber play equipment and associated ground works at the Welsh Wildlife Centre, Cilgerran.

Centre

The Wildlife Centre is on one of the more than 100 nature reserves across South & West Wales, including Skomer and Skokholm island, that the Trust manages.

It provides a range of facilities including a visitor centre with shop and display rooms, café and WTSWW offices, together with a visitor car park, play area, walking trails, bird hides and a cottage for self-catering guests.

The site of the proposed play area is located on an informal grassland meadow recreation area to the northwest of the visitor centre, using Robinia hardwood logs and sawn timber, ropes and hand-woven nets manufactured using steel reinforced polypropylene, with the appearance of traditional hemp cordage, the applicants say.

A supporting statement accompanying the application said the design proposal, produced by Earth Wrights Ltd, is about “increasing play value and creating a place inclusive for everyone”.

Statement

The statement added: “The additional visitors and users of the play equipment would generate minimal and localised noise impacts, confined to the Welsh Wildlife Centre complex itself, with no impacts upon residential properties or other sensitive receptors, given the extensive separation distances to neighbouring development.”

Recommending approval, an officer report said the scheme would also introduce four bird boxes within the woodland to the west of the site and replace the existing bug hotel located near the visitor centre, with a larger, upgraded model.

The local community council, Cilgerran, has raised no objections to the scheme, and the proposals have since been conditionally approved by planners.