P-06-1302 Protect Mid-Wales’ unique Cambrian Mountains: designate them an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – Correspondence from the Petitioner, 03 January 2023

My apologies for missing the deadline for further comment, but I hope given that the Committee's meeting is not until next week there is still time for a brief observation.

Overall, the Petition process has been extremely valuable in moving our proposal forward and we are very grateful to the Committee and staff for your assistance in getting it to this point.  

We watched the Senedd's debate with interest and noted that most of the contributions were broadly positive save for that from Plaid Cymru.  Plaid's contribution appeared to be founded on a lack of understanding of what an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is and how it would affect land use and in particular farmers. In our view, the impact of an AONB designation on the farming community would be minimal compared to, and in any event entirely complementary to, the changes already being brought forward under the new Sustainable Farming Scheme, which have already been approved.  Accordingly, any objection on that basis is misconceived.  We will now focus our efforts on correcting that misapprehension in the community at large in the run up to further consideration of the proposal.  Following our meeting with the Minister's team in December, we understand it is likely to take a year or more due to conflicting workloads in the relevant team at NRW.

Best wishes for the New Year to you and your colleagues

Lorna