The incoming chair of Natural Resources Wales has faced senedd members and addressed the issues facing the public body, including the recent closure of three visitor centres.

Nilesh Sachdev, the Welsh Government’s preferred candidate to take the helm at Natural Resources Wales (NRW), appeared before the Senedd’s climate committee on 11 June.

He was asked by the committee about the closure in March of visitor centres at Bwlch Nant yr Arian, Ynyslas and Coed y Brenin.

He said: “Those are challenges that were given to NRW to deal with and they dealt with them with a particular solution.

“Do I think that solution is right? Probably not, but I don’t know until I speak to them and say ‘what were the options?’.”

Warning that public trust in NRW has “clearly diminished”, Mr Sachdev added: “It’s a bit like turning a big old tanker, isn’t it? Trust is often given to people… when you lose it, it’s going to take a long time to build it. We’ve got to start building bridges now.”

He added: “At the moment, it’s a ‘stick’ answer rather than let’s create a carrot to go with it, so how can we co-create an answer that can help open up these visitor centres?”

Asked about his motivation for wanting to be chair of NRW, Mr Sachdev pointed to his passion on climate change and a recent move to Bristol.

He told the committee: ‘I want to play a part in a community I dearly respect and have an affection for in an area I deeply care about.”

Pressed about his local links, the father of three confirmed he has never lived in Wales but said his wife’s grandparents were born in Gower and his son attended Cardiff University.

He added that he was involved in building supermarkets across the country from Pontypridd to Wrexham for 15 to 20 years while he held senior roles at Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

Mr Sachdev said addressing water pollution and flooding would be his priorities in the £67,600-year role, before expenses, which requires a minimum of 104 days.

He described NRW’s financial picture, which includes a £19m loan from Welsh ministers to cover the costs of a tax blunder, as unfortunate. Promising to strengthen governance, he told Senedd members: “We’ve just got to get smarter about running NRW.”

Asked about NRW slashing around 250 jobs to plug a £10m gap, Mr Sachdev, who boasted of leading a 20% cut in ERW’s workforce on his CV, said: “I’m not prepared to just give you an opinion without having any insight as to what caused that.”

The Senedd’s climate committee holds no veto on the appointment and Huw Irranca-Davies, the deputy first minister and climate secretary, will make a final decision in the weeks ahead.

If successful, one of the first jobs to land on Mr Sachdev’s desk will be appointing an NRW chief executive after Clare Pillman announced her decision to stand down due to ill health.