THE Snowdonia National Park Authority has become a bastion for the Welsh language, a report has revealed this week.

It’s been disclosed that of 140 staff employed by the authority, 132 are fully bilingual in Welsh and English (94 per cent).

Meetings are held in Welsh, with English translation, and the few employees who can’t speak the language fluently are encouraged to attend courses and training, which can be undertaken in work time.

All recruitment advertisements and interviews are in Welsh.

Details are revealed in a Welsh language standards monitoring report, to be discussed by the authority at its annual meeting this week. In the last year 13 vacant posts were advertised, all classed as Welsh essential.

Standards have been set by the Welsh Language Commissioner from 30 March.

“As the authority has been operating bilingually for a number of years no major changes have been needed in order to comply with the vast majority of the standards,” says the report.

“Although the new standards have only been in place for one day in the 2015-16 financial year, the authority is required to produce an annual report in line with the requirements of the (Commissioner’s) Compliance Notice.”