Diolch

I’d like to thank anyone who had the generosity to vote this blog in at number 45 (out of 105) in this year's Welsh Blog Awards. I suppose it’s not bad for a blog about only one small town. I’ve no idea how many people have to vote in order to attain the dizzy height of number 45, quite possibly a very small number indeed. Even so, whoever you are, thank you.

Funding Announced for New GP Surgery in Aberystwyth

National Assembly Health Minister Edwina Hart today announced full funding for a new primary care centre on Penglais Hill in Aberystwyth whilst on a visit to Bronglais Hospital.

The new health centre, which will house a GP Surgery, pharmacy and university creche, received planning permission in September last year but, despite the site being cleared and fenced off in readiness for building, funding for the project had stalled until now.

The scheme is led by local GPs at Padarn Surgery who are currently housed in an 1880s terraced house in the town centre and will enable them to expand from their current 9,000 patients.

The site (seen above) is sensitive as it’s currently a green space on the northern approach to the town and bordering a hidden beauty spot known as the Dingle. However the developers, being local themselves, seem to have understood the concerns of nearby residents and employed landscape architects from Conwy to put together a scheme retaining the majority of trees on the site. Meanwhile, local campaigners acted to have a footpath running alongside the site designated as a public right of way.

Building is expected to start soon and the new surgery is planned to open in April 2011. Edwina Hart also gave reassurances about the Assembly’s commitment to the Bronglais Hospital expansion scheme.

Council Succumbs to the Plastic Tide

Wednesday’s decision of Ceredigion Council’s Development Control Committee to allow around 50 new plastic UPVC windows in a University hall of residence has disappointed Aberystwyth Town Council who strongly objected to the plans.

The Town Council are waging a campaign against the increasing replacement of attractive wooden windows in the town with UPVC and Cllr Mark Strong has a front page article on the issue in this month’s edition of Yr Angor, the town’s papur bro. Although the university is far from the centre of town and has hundreds of UPVC windows anyway, the Town Council felt that the scale of the scheme and the opportunity of the planning application provided a good opportunity to test the commitment of the County Council and the Assembly towards sustainability issues.

As well as the clear aesthetic superiority of wood, there are strong environmental arguments against UPVC. It uses eight times the amount of energy to manufacture as wood. In both its manufacture and disposal, UPVC creates toxic chemicals which are released into the environment. Every ten UPVC windows use half a tonne of CO2 more than the same number made of of wood. And there are certainly a lot of windows in the university building in question.

In recent years UPVC manufacturers have been mounting a vigorous campaign to convince people that their product is in some way environmentally friendly. This is based mainly around a big increase in the use of recycled plastic in the industry coupled with the argument that the cheapness of their windows helps to increase the take-up of energy-saving double glazing. But, although the increased recycling is undoubtedly a good thing, it’s a deeply flawed argument because this only delays the real problem. Unlike other recyclable materials which biodegrade, when plastic finally comes to the end of its life it’s consigned to landfill where it lies for hundreds of years leaching chemicals into the earth.

Of course the main reason for the use of UPVC is its relative cheapness and low maintenance. This is a real consideration for ordinary residents on low wages with limited time. But, although it may be cheaper in the short-term, a study by Camden Housing has found that well maintained timber is actually 25% cheaper over the whole life cycle because it lasts much longer. Presumably the University is here for the long term.

The ironic thing is that the University is stuffed with clever environmentalists who, if they’d been asked, would have told their estates department all this. You might expect that the University as an institution would use its own intellectual resources to pursue environmental best practice.

Guidance in both the Ceredigion Unitary Development Plan and the Assembly’s Planning Policy Wales encourages the use of sustainable materials. The Council’s planning department therefore contacted the university asking for this but were apparently met with a refusal on the basis that something more sustainable would double the cost of the project.

The officers didn’t feel that the policy guidance was strong enough to win a fairly inevitable appeal to the Assembly in the case of a refusal, leaving the Council with costs to pay. On hearing this the majority of the committee voted to approve the application.

I’m not blaming the Council’s planning officers – they may well be right about the likelihood of losing an appeal and at least they tried. But if the Assembly is serious about sustainability it really needs to make its planning policies far more robust because, if ordinary people can’t afford not to use UPVC and big institutions say they can’t either, organisations like the Town Council need much stronger support if they’re to stand against the plastic tide.

Whilst all the debate was happening, the University had pushed ahead and put the new windows in anyway - without planning permission. In the face of such apathy from much bigger fish, what’s an environmentally concerned tiny Town Council to do?

Traffic Delays - Is the Problem in our Heads?

The local paper contacted me the other day asking my thoughts about recent traffic delays around Aberystwyth caused by various roadworks. They were asking if the tourist season was the best time of year to be doing this work. Then it occurred to me that I’d been asked a similar question before, but at an entirely different time of the year. And I wondered, is there actually any time at all when people don't mind roadworks?

The tourist season may seem at first like a bad time to do these works, but then tourists aren’t in a hurry, the university students aren’t here, many local people are on holiday and there are no school runs happening twice a day. So the timing could be worse and I suspect reasons would be found against roadworks at any time.

The blockages to Park Avenue/Boulevard St Brieuc in Aberystwyth are being caused by two different sets of work - a sensible bit of co-ordination it could be argued. At the Llanbadarn end bus stops and pedestrian refuges are being built to serve the new government buildings, due to open next month, in an attempt to make it easier for people to reach the buildings without a car. At the same time, at the town end, a new rising water main is being laid to reduce the incidents of sewage flooding in the town centre, currently running at a very smelly three incidents a year.

Then, on the Llanbadarn Road approach, traffic has been delayed by changes being made to the entrance of Penweddig school, aimed at making the road safer for schoolchildren when they return in September. All this is worthwhile work.

Of course, we've all seen situations where roadworks could have been better planned and co-ordinated. But why is it seemingly so important that cars aren’t delayed for even two minutes, not even for clearly important work?

Maybe we ourselves should take more responsibility for our own impatience rather than blame the Council or the Trunk Road Agency for trying to improve services. As a car driver myself (as well as a cyclist and pedestrian) I confess to the occasional bout of frustration at delays when I think I need to be in a hurry. But then, in better moments, I switch the car ipod to Pharoah Sanders and try to take it as an opportunity to chill out and contemplate the illusion of haste. Maybe the Council should put on relaxation classes.

New Government Buildings Meet Top Environmental Standard

They may be controversial with the local press, built on a flood plain and utterly alien in looks to the local area but the enormous County Council and Assembly buildings suddenly looming over the eastern approach to Aberystwyth do have one or two things going for them. I’ll cover some of the problems (like how people are going to get to them...) another time. But it’s only fair to highlight that the buildings have been designed with some impressive green energy credentials, with heating and other electricity being provided by a combination of wind energy, solar energy and biomass.

Wind Turbines - It’s the sudden appearance of these, with rotar arms designed for an urban environment, that have made people look up and start to consider that something really innovative might be going on.

Solar Panels - spaced along each roof are a row of seven south-facing solar panels to provide hot water for the buildings.

Bio Mass Heating – Situated on the other side of the railway line from the buildings, the biomass plant provides heating at 2 pence per kilowatt hour as opposed to the current 10p per kw in the council buildings being used now. It’s hoped that the nearby Plas Crug Leisure Centre and Ysgol Penweddig can also be connected up to this from next summer.

All these, along with passive solar design and high insulation standards, combine to bring the buildings into the top, ‘excellent’, category of the BREEAM standard – the system used to rate the environmental performance of non-domestic buildings. As time goes by all these energy-saving measures will give a substantial financial saving compared to the current Council accommodation in various converted 18th and 19th century houses dotted around the town centre.

The opening ceremony for the Council building will be conducted on September 9th with staff moving in during week commencing 25th September. Once they’ve worked out how to get there staff will be able to sit at their desks knowing that they’re working in what will probably be the most energy-efficient council offices in Wales.

Seagulls - calls to bring in the the navy

OK, that’s an exaggeration, but 250 people have recently signed a petition calling for ‘something to be done’ about the seagull problem in Aberystwyth where the gulls (mostly herring gulls to be precise) regularly rip rubbish bags apart and occasionally dive-bomb pedestrians to protect their young.

This is an on-going debate in many seaside towns, especially in the early summer months when young gulls have emerged and their parents are needing more food than usual as well as feeling a bit over-protective.

One thing has to be understood. Even if all the local seagulls were gunned down and their eggs oiled, as some people seem to expect, it would only be a matter of time before just as many were back on the streets again. Because the only reason they’re with us is that we feed them by kindly putting our bin bags containing food waste out for them to tuck into each week. You can hardly blame them - they must think they're welcome. The truth is that the seagull problem is the same thing as our waste problem. And it won’t be solved unless we reduce the reason the birds are here in the first place.

Ceredigion County Council have trialled bin bags made from two grades of thicker plastic but the seagulls just laughed and carried on pecking though them. Placing the bags outside only just before the bin men arrive helps (although the gulls don’t need long to get stuck in) but isn’t possible for working people. Using hard green wheelie bins to put the bags in, or smaller ones to separate the food waste into, is fine in suburban or rural areas but doesn’t work in town centres filled with flats because there isn’t enough space for them inside and they clutter the streets.

The latest idea being suggested is to provide residents with woven bags to place the usual plastic bags inside. Tried apparently successfully in Dartmouth in Devon, these bags actually are beak-proof and can then be posted back through residents’ doors to be used again the following week. Aberystwyth Town Council have asked the County Council’s Environmental Services Department, whose remit the issue is, to attend their next meeting in September to talk through this and other ideas.

If anything the problem has been less severe in Aberystwyth this year, maybe because residents have taken some of the measures recommended. In the meantime, as young gulls grow able to look after themselves and their parents chill out, the problem will lessen anyway until it all starts again next year. The question is, can we sort out what we do with our waste by then?

(Diolch i Harry James am y llun)

Welsh Patagonians in Aberystwyth

Vincente, a Welsh-speaking Patagonian, is seen here playing informally last night at the Morlan Centre in Aberystwyth. A former gaucho (Argentinian cowboy), Vincente is over in Wales to perform at the National Eisteddfod, being held this week in Bala. The event at the Morlan was held to promote Aberystwyth's new twinning with Esquel in Patagonia following the visit there of a delegation from the town earlier this year.

The distance involved will mean that contact betwen the two towns is less than with Aberystwyth's other twin towns of St Brieuc in Brittany and Kronberg in Germany. But the fascination of meeting people who are bilingual in Welsh and Spanish with little English plus the other attractions of the region will ensure that the initial twinning is built on. A group from Esquel, a university town of 30,000 people, are planning to visit Aberystywyth next year with a return trip to South America planned for 2011.

Anyone interested in making their own links or wanting to know more can contact Aberystwyth Town Council at council@aberystwyth.gov.uk

Thanks to Laurie Wright for the picture.

Other links:

http://www.welshpatagonia.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquel

Scallop Dredging Ban Proposed

The National Assembly has launched a consultation into scallop dredging which recommends banning or dramatically reducing the activity in much of Cardigan Bay.

Scallop fishing has become extremely controversial in recent years with large scallop trawlers clunking and scraping their way across the sea bed, scouring everything in their path. It’s reported that for every kilogram of scallops caught, 14kg of other species is destroyed at the same time. Scallops are now fetching £1865 per tonne, the demand recently being boosted by the recipes of celebrity chefs.

Cardigan Bay has two Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), designated because of the variety of animal and plant life. The Cardigan Bay SAC stretches from Moylgrove in North Pembrokeshire up to Aberarth in Ceredigion. The Pen Llyn a’r Sarnau SAC runs from Clarach, just north of Aberystwyth, round to Nefyn on the north side of Pen Llyn. At present around two thirds of these SACs are used for dredging.

The consultation proposes banning dredging in these areas and limiting the size of dredgers and their equipment everywhere else in time for the next dredging season starting on November 1st.

The consultation, being run by the Assembly's Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Elin Jones, can be found at: http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/environmentandcountryside/3256249/?lang=en

LLanbadarn Bypass Disappears

In news that will delight local environmentalists, the proposed Llanbadarn Fawr Bypass near Aberystwyth has slipped off the National Assembly's radar altogether in their latest National Transport Plan.

The plan, released last week, lists all planned major transport projects in Wales until 2014. The Llanbadarn Bypass has been the most campaigned for road project in the Aberystwyth area over the years and does seem to have the support of the majority of people in Llanbadarn village which has to cope with 19,000 vehicles passing through each day. It was planned to run from near the Parc y Llyn roundabout on the outskirts of the town to the Glanyrafon junction on the A44. However, despite generally prioritising north-south road links, the Assembly's Trunk Road Agency believe that the improvements made to the Llanbadarn junction in 2006, in which two mini-roundabouts were installed along with pedestrian refuguges, should be able to cope with projected traffic growth up to at least 2019.

Despite the weight of support for the project locally, I've always been extremely sceptical that any benefits brought by a bypass could be worth the destruction of so much greenfield space alongside the river Rheidol. Although the traffic congestion through Llanbadarn can seem bad by Aberystwyth standards, it is still relatively mild and short-lived when compared to other traffic hotspots across Wales. Bypasses are also known for ultimately creating more road traffic.

One benefit of the bypass plan has been the safeguarding of the proposed route against other developments. If Ceredigion Council gives up on the project entirely this land may become vulnerable to development, although flood risk may still help to prevent this.

The only mentions of Ceredigion in Wales's National Transport Plan are a very welcome promise to introduce hourly rail services between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury by 2011 and further work on the Ceredigion Link Road between Synod Inn and Carmarthen.

The plan is being consulted on until October 12th. It can be seen at:

http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/transport/ntp/?lang=en

Bronglais Expansion Back on Track After Council Supports Park & Ride

Bronglais Hospital's Front-of-House extension is back on track after Ceredigion Council's Development Control Committee gave the go ahead to the linked Park & Ride scheme on Clarach Road once there's been agreement on minimising how the proposed subdued lighting will affect the local bat population. Despite 40 objections from people keen to save the field due to be used for the scheme, the committee felt that the risk of losing the hospital extension altogether was so great that they voted overwhelmingly to allow planning permission.

Although objectors suggested more suitable sites for the scheme, NHS executives had been making it clear for some time that the funding window is running out and any more delays would be very likely to result in the allocated £34 million going elsewhere as the NHS braces itself for major cuts in the next few years. Members of the Development Control Committee are used to developers pleading urgency in this way but NHS insiders have been becoming increasingly agitated that this threat is for real. There are senior NHS executives in south Wales who would be only too delighted to have the Bronglais money - the biggest capital project in Hywel Dda Trust - re-allocated to their own pet projects. The potentially catastrophic effects of losing the project - closure of the current sub-standard theatres, leading to the loss of A & E and the downgrading of the whole hospital - was a risk the committee were simply not prepared to take. Two years ago several hundred people marched around Aberystwyth campaigning for the hospital's status to be maintained.

Council Highways officers have for some time been looking for Park & Ride sites for both the north and south of Aberystwyth in an attempt to reduce morning queues into the town. Slow-moving traffic is the most carbon-intensive form of car use. The search for a similar site to the south is ongoing.

Other Aberystwyth planning issues decided:

The major extension to the Llety Parc Hotel in Llanbadarn has been put on hold again after the Environment Agency expressed serious concerns about flooding. Planning officers had recommended outright refusal of the application but councillors sympathetic to the locally-run business argued for more time to discuss a way of managing the risk. Council legal officers said that allowing the application without a proper flood risk plan would leave the Council, and maybe individual councillors, liable for damages in the event of a flood.

An innovative extension to Ysgol Plas Crug with strong sustainability credentials, including a turf roof, has been agreed.

Assembly Consulting on Charging for Plastic Bags

Ceredigion's Assembly Member Elin Jones has urged local residents to respond to a consultation launched this week by the One Wales Government on plans to reduce the availability of free single-use plastic bags in Wales .

The Assembly's Environment Minister, Jane Davidson AM, this week announced that she's seeking views on a proposal to introduce a charge for single-use plastic bags in Wales . In particular, the Minister wants views on what types of bags should be included in a scheme and how much retailers should charge for bags.

Elin Jones said:
“Despite positive steps being taken by many supermarkets to cut down on the amount of single-use plastic bags given out in the UK , we still have a long way to go to reduce the environmental impact of these bags – especially since they take hundreds of years to decompose.

“I hope Ceredigion residents will provide their views on these proposals in order to ensure any resulting legislation strikes the most appropriate balance between meeting the needs of consumers and protecting the environment”.

This is an issue that many people in Aberystwyth have campaigned on but, because local councils don't have the power to enforce a policy if this kind, it's proved very difficult to make progress. Only towns like Totnes in Devon, with an unusually large number of independent, green-minded businesses, have succeeded in getting a voluntary town-wide agreement to eradicate free plastic bags. The Assembly, on the other hand, now has the power to use the Climate Change Act 2008 so it's at this level that we're most likely to get some action.

Details of the consultation and how to take part are here:

http://www.adjudicationpanelwales.org.uk/consultations/environmentandcountryside/singleusecarrierbags/;jsessionid=J2hnKJZdrH2G0BGT2T4m9xs0bT2rnsnpg7M2Vb8vC56ZjsK9Sqfl!-1895006922?lang=en&ts=4

Aberystwyth Night Time Economy Project Saved

Aberystwyth Town Council this week saved the town's Night Time Economy Project when it agreed to give the scheme a grant of £14,000. The scheme had been running for the past year and was judged to be very successful at curbing the alcoholic excesses that often cause town residents and the police so much trouble at night. But funding streams had dried up and the project was in danger of folding completely. £14,000 is a very large grant for the Town Council but, judging from complaints regularly received from residents, the cost was felt to be justified as helping to provide the kind of practical help that people living in the town are requesting.

The scheme looks at the night time economy as a whole and works with everyone involved – drinkers, landlords, the university, taxi drivers, the ambulance service and the police - in helping to reduce the harm caused by alcohol to both local residents and drinkers themselves whilst still encouraging the town to be a vibrant place at night. This includes broadening out what’s on offer to include entertainment not involving alcohol.

The scheme can now carry on for another year and, whilst Aberystwyth will remain the focus of its operations, will also be extended to other towns in Ceredigion.

The Hogarth painting above depicts a typical night time scene in Aberystwyth prior to the commencement of the Night Time Economy Project.

Council Leader Losing Authority

The authority of Ceredigion Council Leader Keith Evans was severely dented today when several members of his own ruling Independent/Lib Dem group failed to support him in a whole series of votes.

The first of the votes in today’s Full Council meeting was to overturn the Council Cabinet’s attempt to close Syr John Rhys school in Ponterwyd. With 30 applauding demonstrators in the public gallery, the Council voted against the Independent Leader’s wishes and for a stay of execution for the school in order to review the situation in a year when the effect on the school population of possible new houses in Ponterwyd can be assessed.

There was then a narrow victory for the ruling coalition on exploring partnerships with the private sector to provide future council engineering services. But this was only because members of the group who had spoken against the idea mistakenly abstained when it came to the vote.

Next was a series of votes on the new Council building in Aberystwyth. Councillors voted unanimously that the name of the road leading to the building should be Rhodfa Padarn, in Welsh only, despite the Leader's insistence in Cabinet two weeks ago that it should be a bilingual Rhodfa Rheidol/Rheidol Avenue.

Lastly, more trivially but most symbolically of all, the Council voted against the Leader opening the new building and in favour of the Chair, Ivor Williams, doing it instead. Not even a plea from the Chair himself that Keith Evans should be allowed to conduct the opening could persuade councillors to vote for their Leader.

The sight of both Lib Dems and Independents on Ceredigion Council voting with the opposition Plaid Cymru group against their own Council Leader is highly unusual and marks a dramatic change in attitude amongst several members of the ruling group. It's clear that there's disatisfaction in the ranks with the leadership. With the ruling group and opposition already tightly balanced, it looks as if the days of votes on Ceredigion Council being a foregone conclusion are over.

Dire Warning for Future Council Finances

Ceredigion Councillors have been given a dire warning about the prospects for local government finances in the next few years when the repayment of debts caused by the government bailout of banks will hit the public sector harder than anything in living memory.

A report by Council Officers on a presentation at the recent Welsh Local Government Association Conference quoted the economist Will Hutton when he said,
“There is a problem hanging over British politics so big and so ugly that no party wants to acknowledge it, far less discuss it: how far do we cut spending and how high do we raise taxes?”

The Institute of Fiscal Studies has estimated that public services will lose an estimated £45 billion from 2011-14. Individual Councils could lose £60 million. Councillors were told, “We’re not living in the real world if we claim that all these problems can be solved by greater efficiency. 80% of Local Authority funding is in education and social care. Just cutting the other 20% will not provide the answers”.

Torfaen Council’s Chief Executive has said, “There simply will not be enough money for local authorities to keep doing what they have been doing up until now”. It's thought that 2000 jobs could be lost in the public sector in Wales. The particular problem for Ceredigion is that the formulas for allocating finances are population-centric.

The presentation was watched keenly by councillors of all persuasions. Although Ceredigion Council is currently run by a coalition of Independents and Lib Dems, the serious financial shortfall will have to be managed by whoever is running Ceredigion from 2011. The next Council elections are due in 2012. Plaid Cymru, who are the largest group on the Council and have only two councillors less than the ruling coalition, are strongly fancied to take over then after building up their councillor base for many years.

In looking for ways to tackle the crisis, Rhodri Morgan, Leader of the National Assembly, has (quite rightly in my view) ruled out local government re-organisation, saying that this would be a distraction. Instead, the emphasis is on Councils finding efficiencies of scale by working together.

Bay Hotel Closes

The Bay Hotel on Aberystwyth Prom has closed its doors for the last time after Brains, the Cardiff-based brewers, abruptly shut the place this week. Brains say the reason for the closure is lack of profit but regulars there find this hard to believe.

Some town centre residents, kept awake at night by drinkers returning home, will be glad to see a late-opening pub close. But, despite having a license to open till 4am, the Bay actually had a reputation as the most trouble-free of the town's late night drinking and dancing venues due to its strict door and behaviour policy. The pub, with a capacity of 650, was an institution amongst the town's student population and the real impact of the closure won't be felt until September when students return from their summer holidays.

The building is owned by Ceredigion Council who leased it to Brains. It is now almost certain to be added to the list of Council buildings in the town being sold.

The Save the Bay / Achub y Bae Facebook group can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=Save+the+Bay+&init=q&sid=d2f6c6a54ece5e7271b09b23809d20c4#/group.php?gid=108815069392

Mentro Lluest Open Day

Mentro Lluest, the organic plant nursery and training centre for people with special needs is holding an open day on Saturday 27th June. The centre is on a 3-acre site near the top of Primrose Hill at Waun Fawr, north of Aberystwyth. It's run as a charity and is a centre of excellence for teaching organic growing and environmental sustainability.

http://www.mentrolluest.org/en/about

Aldi Exhibition Announced

An exhibition (I hesitate to call these things a consultation, though that's what it'll probably be billed as) of plans for a new Aldi supermarket and hotel on Aberystwyth's old Quick Save site in Park Avenue has been announced.

The exhibition will be at the Canolfan Morlan on the corner of Queens Road on Wednesday 8th July from 2 - 6pm. Meanwhile a basic version of the plans is on display in the foyer of Aberystwyth Town Hall in Queens Road.

Aldi's labour-saving corporate shelf stacking style can be seen above. Hmmn...

See blog on 17/5/08 for more info.

Welsh Teachers Union opens new HQ in Aberystwyth

The Welsh Teaching Union UCAC officially opened their new offices at the foot of Penglais Hill in Aberystwyth today in front of an invited audience of 60 people.

UCAC - Undeb Cenedlaethol Athrawon Cymru - were previously housed at Pen Roc opposite Aberystwyth Pier. Their new venue, known as Havelock Villa, was once a residential home but had been converted into flats and had severely deteriorated, creating an eyesore on this entranceway to Aberystwyth. UCAC’s tasteful refurbishment has restored the house to its former glory.

UCAC: http://www.athrawon.com/Main/Default.aspx

Something for Ceredigion to be proud of

A snippet from the Euro-election result and something for us to be proud of here - at just 2.72% Ceredigion had the lowest percentage of BNP voters in Wales. I haven't got the figures for the UK but suspect we may well be the lowest, or almost, there as well. Ceredigion also had the second lowest UKIP vote in Wales.

Aberystwyth included in new UN Biosphere

Aberystwyth has been included in the new United Nations 'Biosphere' centred around the Dyfi Valley, it was announced yesterday by Assembly Environment Minister Jane Davidson in Machynlleth.

The Biosffer Dyfi/Dyfi Biosphere ranks alongside a total of 531 sites across 105 different countries including, somewhat improbably, the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, Niagara Falls in Canada and Mount Olympus in Greece.

Biosphere Reserves are areas designated under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme to serve as places for experimenting with and learning about different approaches to environmental sustainability. The communities that live in the area, including their culture and economy, are considered integral to this.

Although not part of the core Biosphere area, Aberystwyth is included as part of the 'Transition Zone' after a consultation exercise last year found widespread support for the idea. The precise benefits of the status are still unclear. However, it will almost certainly result in increased grant funding for projects and developments that make a contribution to environmental sustainability. Over time this could add real substance to the area's green reputation.

A map of the Dyfi Biosphere can be seen here:
http://www.biosfferdyfi.org.uk/u/File/Zonation%20Map%20Biosffer%20Dyfi%20Biosphere%20Dec%202008.pdf

More details here: http://www.biosfferdyfi.org.uk/