SNOWDONIA National Park bosses have said job losses are inevitable following another year of swinging cuts to its budget.

Following the publication of the Welsh Government’s budget, Snowdonia National Park Authority faces a £784,000 cut to its budget over the next two years.

In 2020, the Snowdonia National Park Authority’s Welsh Government grant and levy will be £4,484,669 – less than what the authority received in 2001 (£4,535,480).

Considering salary inflation and general inflation over the last 20 years, the authority has significantly less resources to carry out its purposes.

In the past, in order to respond to its financial challenges, the authority has been successful in achieving £1.2 million of savings since 2014, together with generating £1.8m of additional income, e.g. through parking fees, information centres, Plas Tan y Bwlch, planning fees and pre-planning advice fees.

However this is not enough to close the financial gap currently facing the organisation.

Emyr Williams, chief executive of Snowdonia National Park Authority said: “Responding to a challenge such as this is extremely hard and our staff are facing difficult and worrying times. We are a small authority that has already lost 40 valuable jobs in the last ten years, accomplishing more now than 20 years ago but within a much smaller budget.”

Authority Chairman Owain Wyn added: “As an authority, we must consider now how we carry out our work, how we will deliver our services together and prioritising those services which are essential to fulfilling our purposes. At the same time, we have to comply with and respond to laws such as the Well-being of Future Generations Act, Environment Act 2016 and ‘Taking Wales Forward’ which helps us to guide the direction of our work. We will also set out strategic objectives for the Authority’s Well Being Objectives.

“Unfortunately, redundancy is inevitable in a situation such as this and losing anyone form our workforce will have a detrimental effect on our work.”

The authority currently employs 135 staff.