On 30th April, Cambrian Mountains Society trustees met the cabinet of Ceredigion County Council and gave a presentation on the benefits that would flow to the county from the creation of a Cambrian Mountains Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The presentation included:

• the society’s vision for the Cambrians
• information about AONBs
• how the society’s objects, and AONB status, would fit with the Council’s new Single Integrated Plan
• the financial costs and benefits for local authorities

The formal presentation ended with a new version of  the society’s film Secret Wales, featuring John Morgan reciting Nant y Mynydd by Ceiriog, the 19th-century Welsh poet.

It was followed by a 15-minute question time.

Cabinet members appeared quite receptive, but pointed to severe financial constraints. It is hoped that when they re-read the presentation document, they will note that, in the North Pennines AONB, £86,000 a year of local authority funding brings twenty times that amount into the AONB area.