A proposal has been put forward to develop a “ghost” industrial estate as a park-and-ride hub to resolve parking woes in north Eryri (Snowdonia). In recent years, scores of visitors have been fined or their cars towed from the Ogwen Valley and roads surrounding Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon).
While the National Park has introduced widely praised park-and-ride facilities, Cymdeithas Eryri (Snowdonia Society) believes more needs doing. Following a call by Cyngor Gwynedd for sites suitable for development, the society has proposed using Parc Bryn Cegin as a major park-and-ride site.
The site at Llandygai, Gwynedd, lies near the junction of the A5 and the A55, just south east of Bangor, giving easy access for visitors heading to the National Park by car. It’s sat empty for around two decades since being developed as a “regionally strategic” business site designed to attract jobs to the area.
Despite more than £11m being spent on creating the 35-acre park, it struggled to attract businesses in the wake of the 2007-08 banking crisis and subsequent recessions. It was also the subject of archaeological excavations for its Iron Age and Roman “historical importance”.
Cymdeithas Eryri director Rory Francis said the opportunity to create a park-and-ride hub on the site was “too good to miss” – visitors could simply pull off the A55, park and then catch one of the regular T10 buses into the mountains. Not only would this negate the bad publicity generated by the towing of illegally parked cars, it would enhance the National Park’s sustainability credentials, he said.
Mr Francis added: “The T10 bus between Bangor and Betws-y-Coed ran hourly during the daytime last summer and, as a result, the ridership nearly doubled. It was so successful that, on fine summer days, the small car parks in Bethesda were full to capacity. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now
“So, if we want to allow more people to access the mountains on the bus, we need to provide more parking as well as more frequent buses. Bryn Cegin could provide the answer. Of course, ideally, we would like more people to take the train to Bangor and catch the bus from there. But a park-and-ride facility at Parc Bryn Cegin would be a huge step in the right direction, and it would help tackle what is already a real problem in Dyffryn Ogwen.”
The Parc Bryn Cegin business park at Llandygai, Bangor
(Image: Google)
Park-and ride services in the National Park were developed following a 2020 report by Martin Higgitt Associates. This recommended a series of “gateway” sites ringing the honeypot mountains of north Eryri, with extra bus services operating from Betws-y-Coed, Beddgelert and Bethesda. Hourly Sherpa buses also began running from Llanberis and a new park-and-ride car park was built in Nant Paris primarily to serve walkers heading up Yr Wyddfa via Pen y Pass.
While police, council and National Park messaging has reduced the area’s illegal parking, Cymdeithas Eryri said the problem remains “immediate and pressing”, often causing “grief and expense for all concerned”. While the society sees Parc Bryn Cegin an an ideal solution, a potential spanner in the works is recent efforts to populate the site with business units.
In April 2024, Cyngor Gwynedd’s planners unanimously agreed to develop a 10-unit building at Parc Bryn Cegin. Planning consent has also been given for a builders merchant and a Bio-CNG gas fuelling facility to serve fleets of specially adapted HGVs.
In December, the Welsh Government, which owns the site, unveiled further plans to build four new industrial units on 3,712sqm of employment land. Three of those buildings would be sub-divided to provide a total of nine units, potentially creating up to 48 jobs.
Despite this, Rory Francis believes the idea should be pursued. He said: “We feel that the possibility of a park-and-ride facility at Parc Bryn Cegin is just too good miss. So we are proposing it ourselves, although even we don’t own the site, in the hope that this will prompt discussion and action.”
Eryri National Park Authority welcomed the idea. A spokesperson said: “We are supportive of further park-and-ride facilities in northern Eryri, as improving sustainable transport options is key to managing visitor pressures. Finding effective solutions for parking and transport issues at key hotspots like Yr Wyddfa and Ogwen during peak visitor season is one of our main ambitions.
“It is essential that all partners and stakeholders work together collaboratively to ensure success.” Cyngor Gwynedd was also approached for a comment. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
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