Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Gets Pushback on Adventure Sports Hub

An adventure sports hub is being planned for Pembrokeshire Coast National Park but there is pushback from some people.

Cardigan Bay landscape along the coastal walk. / Mandatory Credit - Danny Thomas

There are big plans in place for Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in the United Kingdom. People who visit Moylegrove have the opportunity to take kayak trips and coasteering for adventure-seeking tourists.

Those things are offered by Adventure Beyond, but they have plans to expand with an adventure sports hub. People for the expansion believe that it will cut down on traffic near Ceibwr Bay near Cardigan, Ceredigion.

However, there are a lot of people who are opposed to this adventure hub being created. Wildlife campaigners believe that wildlife in the area will be disturbed and threaten nesting birds with too much development.

Part of the reason that this hub is being suggested is the need for a place to store equipment and gear. The place currently used to store those things on a nearby farm, per Adventure Beyond managing director Jet Moore, may not be available any longer.

As shared by BBC News, “The company hopes to provide a "recreation hub" where customers can park and get changed. They would then be encouraged to walk or cycle to Ceibwr Bay, about one mile (1.6km) away, for coasteering, kayaking or "field studies.””

12 people work full or part-time for the company, which is funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. If the money from the grant isn’t used by the end of this year, it will be lost.

However, that isn’t something one of the members of the Ceiwbr Conservation group is worried about. Dagmarr Moore, a campaigner, claimed the adventure activities are threatening the local wildlife.

"We'd like to see Ceibwr kept wild," she said.

"We think it's important. The coasteerers climb on the cliffs and jump off underneath the nesting sea birds.

"When they jump off the birds fly away and leave their chicks and eggs and other gulls come in and take the eggs.

"This is a Special Area of Conservation an a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is a fragile ecosystem.”

Cynyr Ifan, who has worked as an instructor for Adventure Beyond for two decades, doesn’t believe the claims of Moore to be true.

"I'd like to see some direct proof of that, to be honest, because we're a company, a group of people, who are very passionate about the wildlife," he said.

"We know where the birds are nesting so we keep out of that area.”

This will be something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks. An area to cut down on traffic would seemingly be a positive for the environment, but not everyone is on the same page when it comes to the adventure sports hub.