A petition which has garnered almost 1,500 signatures calling for the reopening of the Cwmcarn Forest Drive before Easter next year has been considered by a dedicated committee.
The campaign group, Friends of Cwmcarn Forest Drive, submitted the petition after it received 353 paper signatures and 1,097 online.
The group is calling on the Welsh Government to “provide the necessary means to allow Natural Resources Wales to fully re-open the Cwmcarn Forest Drive to private cars at Easter 2018.”
The forest drive was closed in November 2014 to allow for the felling of around 160,000 diseased larch trees along the seven-mile drive, which was estimated to take two years to complete. At the start of May this year, approximately 30% of infected trees had been removed from the forest.
Harvesting operations have moved into the central and northern sides of the forest to fell the remaining trees, and despite other attractions at the site – including the visitor centre, mountain bike trails and footpaths – being reinstated, Friends of Cwmcarn Forest Drive are concerned that there has been no assurance that the road route will reopen at all amid suggestions the attraction was running at a loss.
Robert Southall, the group’s chairman, said: “Far too much is being decided by the Welsh Government behind closed doors. If they have a will to do anything, they will do it, and our campaign is very much about motivating them into action.
“If they can spend several hundreds of thousands of pounds on a name and logo change, they can spend the same on the Cwmcarn Forest Drive.”
Mr Southall also criticised Natural Resources Wales’ plans to undertake a feasibility study with Caerphilly County Borough Council to assess the future of the Forest Drive, adding: “I am afraid that I think the feasibility study is a waste of time and money. They have already been talking about this for over a year and I have yet to see any real progress on it.”
Writing in a letter to the Petitions Committee last month, Mr Southall described keeping the Drive closed to car users as “unfair and unnecessary”.
He wrote: “What we would like to see in this instance is for the Welsh Government to assist NRW in seeking and securing funding to reopen the Drive. Our group is concerned that the longer the Drive remains closed the greater the likelihood that it will never be reopened, thus permanently excluding a large number of former users.”
The group’s petition was considered on Tuesday June 13 by the National Assembly for Wales’ Petitions Committee, and chair Mike Hedges AM, determined that the committee would pass the group’s concern over funding issues on to the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths.
Sally Tansey, Regional Land Manager for South East Wales, from Natural Resources Wales said: “Cwmcarn Forest and its Drive is a popular place to visit, and we thank people for their patience while we’ve been undertaking important works to remove infected larch trees from the site.
“This felling operation is one of the largest we’ve ever had to undertake in Wales and we anticipate that felling and restocking will continue for the next few years.
“We continue to work closely with Caerphilly County Borough Council to look at the potential for the Forest Drive in the future, and will keep the community updated as our plans develop.”