A MULTI-MILLION-POUND project has decimated local wildlife, threatened the viability of a prominent business and ruined a public footpath, it has been claimed.

Arthog Community Council and Bwlchgwyn farm owners have lambasted Natural Resources Wales for flooding a valued piece of land which they say is now no longer habitable or fit for horse-riding or walking.

Morfa Friog, a patch of land which juts into the Mawddach Estuary, was bought by NRW approximately five years ago.

An embankment was subsequently breached to develop a “saltmarsh habitat” as part of a £6.8m flood risk management scheme to protect Fairbourne from rising sea levels.

Prior to being sold, the land, which was protected by the embankment, was used as a football pitch, a trekking path for ponies and horses, and a footpath for visitors and locals.

However, since the embankment was breached in 2016, the land has now become boggy and dangerous to walk on and local wildlife has relocated, the complainants say.

Operators of Bwlchgwyn Trekking Centre, who had been using the marshland since the 1960s, have voiced concerns about their future.

Gemma Evans of the centre, said: “It’s a huge worry for us. We can’t use the path as it’s just too marshy and the horses wouldn’t be safe."

Read the full story in today’s Meirionnydd edition of the Cambrian News