Having looked at the situation and having met the campaign group, the solution that has been prepared by Natural Resources Wales is not the right solution.  It is a twentieth century solution to a twenty first century problem.  Concrete is never the answer, demolishing ancient woodlands is never the answer.

 

We are in the middle of the election period now, so it’s the bidding stage – everyone is throwing promises around and in addition to the usual spending pledges we are seeing new promises around who will plant the most trees.  It’s great to see people being pushed into this, or coming around to that way of thinking.  But tree planting, while good and essential, is a long term strategy, and it does not replace ancient woodlands.  We’ve been talking about biodiversity and threatened species, and ancient woodlands are so important in that.

 

I think the whole thing has been very badly handled.  These things so often are by the powers that be, and not necessarily with malicious intent.  They’ve seen a problem, they’ve looked at the engineering solutions to it, they’ve consulted in the way that large bodies usually consult.

 

We need to look at how these decisions are being made, and Natural Resources Wales being too far from the communities their decisions are affecting.  It’s essential to get the community’s ideas first, rather than designing a solution and asking people what they think.  Once they’ve spent all of that time and money and they’ve brought their consultants in, they’ve done their brilliant 3D modelling, and this fantastic concrete slab, then it’s harder for them to backtrack.  And it’s not just wrong for this project – it’s setting a bad precedent for other communities to come.

 

It’s quite clear the damage that the proposed dam would do to sensitive and historic ancient woodland, and it’s been very reassuring in recent months to see the increased awareness of the need to protect ancient woodlands.

 

There are obviously lots of things they could be looking at, like tree planting upstream, and clearing blockages upstream and downstream, Having the Woodland Trust involved gives you a lot of legitimacy, as they would not be on board if it was just a ‘not in my back yard’ issue.  So from what I’ve seen so far, I’m fully behind the campaign and the way you have run it, and I’d like to continue to do everything I can to highlight and help you propose better solutions.