A CONTROVERSIAL holiday park set to create 20 new jobs has been approved despite thousands of objections and fears about a loss of trade in a nearby village.

A Forest Holidays log cabin redevelopment in the Eryri Forestry Park, Beddgelert, has been at the centre of two years of fevered discussion but was approved at a Snowdonia National Park Authority Planning and Access Committee last week.

The redevelopment of the site will see a loss of 110 camping pitches, which will be replaced by 16 timber cabins, fuelling fears that Beddgelert’s economy will be dented as there will be a reduction in the amount of tourists able to stay in the area.

Originally, there were plans to replace all 195 pitches with 25 log cabins but the current agreement has been arrived at as a compromise, with 85 pitches - 59 touring and 26 camping - remaining on site.

Over 200 individual letters of objection have been received by the National Park Authority, with several letter-writers concerned that the site may become a ‘self-sustaining village’ in its own right and take trade away from Beddgelert.

Alongside the letters of complaint, an online petition objecting to the proposal attracted 3,613 signatories, and a paper petition at Beddgelert Post Office got 413 names.

However staff at the park authority have said that the new holiday park would “not result in the loss of a tourist facility, rather one with less intensive use”.

Forest Holidays also says it will create an additional 20 full and part-time jobs at the nine-hectare forest location, owned by the Welsh Government, and support a similar number off-site.

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