More Comments on Council Letter

Another email from a supporter,

Dear Mr.Jones,Thank you for your letter ref. LDN 2222 dated 14/7/09 re. Bryn Euryn.

I apologise for replying by email, but as the Management Committee meet next Monday 20th, I wanted you to have all the information at your disposal.We are going to summarise all our information to the local councillors before the meeting, so they have everything to hand.I will try to deal with the points in Stuart Davies' letter first.

1. The warden seems to have started the myth that the Bryn was grazed in the 30's to 50's. This is not so, when he was challenged by my neighbour his reply was 'somebody told him!' There is no evidence of previous grazing. We have a number of residents that have been walking the Bryn since 1937, and it has never been grazed in that time. The limestone grass survived very well from then until 1996 without human intervention. In fact the same walkers tell us that before 1996 the Bryn had many more wild flowers and orchids in the meadows.

2. It is not ONLY dog-walkers who are protesting, many walkers and families are unhappy. We have lost one large field to allotments already. The warden has stated that the areas to be enclosed with 'fencing and kissing gates' would be the meadows past the cottage and the upper meadow near the summit. These are the most popular areas to walk through and sit and admire the views, and is quite a large area altogether.We take the 4 months grazing statement with a pinch of salt, once the animals are in who knows?

3. Danger:- I do not think the Council realises the sheer volume of walkers, families and dog-walkers that visit the Bryn. We estimate the 200 or so at our meeting could well have been doubled if it had not been for other commitments on a wet Saturday morning. I do not think it could be compared to other sites in this way. The oft-quoted case of the vet killed by livestock is just the sort of thing that could happen. In an ideal world all dogs and children would be well-behaved and under control, we are dealing with real life here.I am not an expert on horses, but apart from the poor access to the Bryn for transportation, where will these animals be exercised, riding over the rare grass in the meadow, the temptation for owners to ride them around the lanes of the Bryn would be great, with potentially disastrous consequences should they meet an unexpected dog or walker. There are also animal welfare issues due to the fact that a lot of drinking goes on at the Bryn at night, drunken youths and horses don't mix.

4. Costs:- The Council are I am told not allowed to charge for grazing, due to a covenant on the land preventing business use. The cost of fencing and gates would be considerable, and maintenance should not be underestimated, due to vandalism, which I will come to later.Animals need water, the cost of running piping to the top meadow, and the consumption of water(I believe horses can use up to 20 litres per day), will be considerable, and an ongoing cost, also liable to the previously mentioned vandalism.Insurance, somebody has to pay for this. I suppose all this will be billed to our Council Tax. The £4000 the warden said they were trying to save will pale into insignificance, plus the fact that most of the areas they previously strimmed will not be grazed, so will strimming still continue?

There is an ongoing anti-social problem at the Bryn at night mainly. A considerable amount of drinking goes on, also at Llys Euryn. Three times in the last 3 years I have been to the Bryn with the local police to have agressive youths lighting fires and drinking in the meadows removed, my neighbours recently went up and removed two sacks of cans, bottles and rubbish after one such session. My fellow dog walkers always pick up cans etc. on their travels, though to read the comments in the Weekly News one would think all we did was deposit dog mess!There is a sign on the Bryn noticeboard asking dog-walkers to report incidents, which we always do. But we are hampered by the fact that the Countryside Dept. do not cover weekends with Warden cover, which for a leisure type area is surprising. The police do what they can, but are always at full stretch at weekends in other areas.I will send you a copy of an email my wife sent to the Councillors in May which illustrates her concerns over the animals and anti-social behaviour.I believe walkers and dog-walkers should be thanked for keeping the Bryn safe for families, and not treated as the 'baddies' in the Press.Sorry this is so long regards