Plans for new national park may be scrapped this week, campaigners say

A campaign group says it fears plans to create the first national park in Wales since 1957 will be scrapped by the Welsh government this week.

An announcement is due about the next steps for the proposed Glyndwr National Park, covering the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley in north-east Wales.

The previous Welsh government under Labour said in March it would hold a public inquiry into creating the park after councils raised concerns about funding and planning rules within it.

The Welsh government, now led by Plaid Cymru, said Constitution Minister Dafydd Trystan Davies would make a statement on the matter on Tuesday.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement, Gareth Ludkin, of the Campaign for National Parks, said: "We don't know what the statement is going to say on Tuesday, but we would fear that the government are set to cancel the public inquiry.

"What we are saying really is allow the inquiry to take place. The government can make a decision after that, but allow the full facts of the case.

"Because I think there's recognition that the consultation only went so far.

"There are a lot of outstanding questions and the local communities need to be heard."

The UK has 15 national parks, with three in Wales including Eryri (Snowdonia), the Pembrokeshire Coast and Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons).

A proposed fourth would be based around the existing Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and would stretch from the Denbighshire coastal town of Prestatyn to Nant-y-dugoed - about 20 miles west of Welshpool, Powys.

Sarah Lewis, a farmer from Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Powys, said she opposed the park and was concerned it would push up house prices.

"These are young people who want to live within their rural communities," she said.

"They are Welsh-speaking. Therefore, if they can't afford to buy properties in their home areas we are going to lose not only the youth of our communities, but also the language of our communities."

She added: "They are going to have to buy properties perhaps over the border or outside our rural communities."

National parks policy is the responsibility of Rural Resilience Minister Llyr Gruffydd, but he urged people to oppose the Glyndwr plan before he entered government while Plaid was in opposition.

The constitution minister Davies will deliver the statement in the Senedd instead.

Creating a park - the fourth in Wales - had been a Labour manifesto commitment in 2021.

An official process looking at whether the proposed area met the criteria for a national park was run by Natural Resources Wales between 2022-25 and costed approximately £700,000 a year.

In January 2026, the organisation's board voted to back the proposals and issued a designation order for Glyndwr National Park, named after the last Welsh-born Prince of Wales Owain Glyndwr.

There were 1,678 responses to the final consultation, with 53% in favour, 14% offering at least conditional support, with 31% opposed and 3% undecided.

All five councils affected by the park's proposed boundary said they had reservations, with several issuing a formal objection.

The Labour-led Welsh government announced the inquiry into the park in March, saying national parks were "designed to have a significant positive impact on our natural environment and people's ability to enjoy it" and it was "right that these issues are considered very carefully".

Plaid inherited responsibility for the inquiry when it won May's Senedd election.