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Plans for ‘off-roading experience’ at breeding site for ospreys slammed

19 Sep 2021 3 minute read
Picture by Jean Beaufort.

Dŵr Cymru has come under fire for advertising an “off road experience” using an all-terrain articulated truck at a reservoir which is a breeding site for ospreys.

Former North Wales Police and Crimes commissioner, Arfon Jones has tweeted a screenshot of the “attraction” tagging politicians, environment and wildlife groups to raise awareness.

He noticed that Dŵr Cymru is advertising a forthcoming attraction at Llyn Brenig in the form of an “all-weather, all-terrain vehicle for an exciting new off-road adventure experience” using a tracked, articulated ex-army vehicle which can “take boggy grassland, muddy hollows and rocky terrain” in its stride, and claims to leave a only light track mark on the landscape.

He said: “This can’t be right. This off-roading damages moorland and pollutes waterways. This is wrong on so many levels.”

Unstoppable

Llyn Brenig is located in the heart of the Denbigh Moors, at a height of 1200 feet, on the border between Conwy and Denbighshire.

While the reservoir is already popular for traditional water sports such as sailing, fishing, and canoeing, the only power craft allowed on the water, until now, has been used by fishermen, ranger patrol boats and sailing club safety craft.

The Llyn Brenig website describes the all-terrain vehicle used in the experience as “a  Hägglunds Bandvagn (Bv) 206, a tracked, articulated, all-terrain carrier designed to carry army troops in the bogs and woods of the Scandinavian Arctic.

“This particular vehicle served in the Swedish armed forces in the 1980s before being shipped to the UK. Lightweight, powerful and unstoppable, the Bandvagn comprises two units with four powered tracks.”

It adds: “It has extremely low ground pressure (1.9 psi) due to its wide tracks and leaves very little trace of its journey in the landscapes of Llyn Brenig.

“The very limited physical impact of the Bv 206 on the natural environment adds to Lake Brenig’s already impressive sustainability credentials.”

Disturbed

In 2018, ospreys, largely monogamous birds who return to the same nest sites year after year, began breeding at Llyn Brenig.

They are rare in Wales, just a handful according to the Dyfi Osprey project, though numbers are improving in England and Scotland.

Last year it was reported that a reality TV show crew may have disturbed the ospreys during the breeding season while filming “The Bridge” in the area.

At the time it was reported that the set was near a rare nesting pair and their chick, and that according to Wales Wildlife Trust, they had not returned to the nest for two weeks.

The programme saw 12 contestants building a 250m walkway to a pontoon in the reservoir, and local wildlife advocates said that parts of the woodland were cleared for crew accommodation.

At the time, wildlife lover Annie Maluver said: “I’m a keen wildlife observer and I’ve been speaking to the wildlife trust at the site, and they are very concerned.

“To think they may not come back next year is devastating. If they’ve frightened them off they can’t undo the damage that’s been done.”


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Dim problem
Dim problem
2 years ago

Llyn Brenig’s active osprey nest was destroyed by person(s) unknown at the start of the breeding season, with eggs lost. I doubt inviting the off-roader crowd will do anything to improve the security of these incredinle, rare birds.

Rudolph Winksworth
Rudolph Winksworth
2 years ago

reeks of capitalism

GW Atkinson
GW Atkinson
2 years ago

Dwr Cymru are the ones that flooded Tryweryn for the English right? But then changed their name to take the heat off them.

Shân Ashton
Shân Ashton
2 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

GW Atkinson – no, wrong on all counts!

Argol Fawr
Argol Fawr
2 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

So wrong. Tryweryn, the resulting reservoir then named Llyn Celyn, was a project belonging to Liverpool corporation,

Hannergylch
Hannergylch
2 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

Dŵr Cymru’s customers are all in either Wales or Herefordshire. They’re a non-profit (so, unlike the unlucky people in Severn-Trent’s part of England, we’re not paying shareholders’ dividends through our bills). But from other comments here, it seems there’s a problem with their governance. I don’t know about Dŵr Cymru specifically, so here’s a generic critique of paid non-execs (no offence to any volunteer non-execs reading this!). Paid non-executive directors are employees in the eyes of HMRC, which is why some organisations have roving board meetings (travel to a regular place of employment isn’t a tax-deductible expense whereas travel to… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by Hannergylch
Argol Fawr
Argol Fawr
2 years ago
Reply to  Hannergylch

Being a ‘not for profit’ organisation doesn’t in itself make it an effective business. Such a setup can cost customers a lot more than shareholder dividends because of a chronic lack of competition and dysfunctional management.
The bulk of Dwr Cymry’s capital expenditure goes into the pockets of operators set up outside Wales. With hardly any of your rates recycled into the Welsh economy.
Time to wake up and smell the Coffee?

Last edited 2 years ago by Argol Fawr
Cathy Jones
Cathy Jones
2 years ago

This is what happens when we allow Cymru to be pimped out to tourists and self-centred t.v. production crews (I would rather live next to crack dealers than a t.v. crew…drug-related offences would be lower, for one thing).. All of this kind of disgusting crud has to stop if we are to protect the rich biosphere in Cymru that is being rapidly depleted. We need to start respecting what we have and we need to demand that people who visit as tourists start behaving themselves and respecting the land as well (Anecdotal Andrea: I recently went to Rhyl, one of… Read more »

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
2 years ago

Not content with fouling our rivers they are actively encouraging the destruction of the uplands…

Ap Kenneth
Ap Kenneth
2 years ago

Dŵr Cymru – suppossidly a “not for profit company” except that a substantial proportion of the profit goes as hugely inflated remuneration to the chief executive directors. It is about time they earned there crusts by ensuring the company truely respects the enviroment (which this latest wheeze does not), that they employed their workers and do not out-source substantial chunks of their work and truly help those who have trouble with their bills.

hdavies15
hdavies15
2 years ago
Reply to  Ap Kenneth

Spot on there Ap K. Over the years there’s been much virtue signalling by Dwr Cymru – we’re not for profit blah blah – yet it pays its top tier exceedingly good salaries and benefits while lording it over a monopoly. Makes matters worse by providing a haven for retired execs from other enterprises enabling them to suck up inflated non exec salaries and benefits to top up their already generous pensions from previous employments. Fat cats getting fatter.

Argol Fawr
Argol Fawr
2 years ago

Pity Dwr Cymru arn’t as interested in diligently managing their Waste Water plant discharge compliances as they are jollying around wrecking the moorlands and forests.

hdavies15
hdavies15
2 years ago

This off roading nonsense should be banned right across the country. In Cumbria they have a real problem around the high moors adjacent to lakes and there’s a demand for such antics to be allowed in our Elenydd.

Arfon Jones
Arfon Jones
2 years ago

Llyn Brenig 673 reactions to this with more than half being 😡😢 and 692 comments many again being negative.

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