Mae gen i’r fraint anhygoel o gael cartref mewn parc cenedlaethol, yn Nhyddewi. Nid oes dim byd yn debyg i ddihuno yn y bore a chael gweld yr arfordir yna o’ch blaen chi. Ond mae yna gyfyngiadau o fyw mewn parc cenedlaethol, yn enwedig y rhai sy’n ymwneud ag adeiladu. Mae’n swyddogaeth ac yn gyfrifoldeb arbennig ar y parc cenedlaethol i sicrhau bod yna falans rhwng cadw prydferthwch y wlad a galluogi’r boblogaeth leol i fyw yna—un y mae angen delio ag ef gyda sensitifrwydd.

Now, many of you will be aware that I’m currently, along with a team of successful businesses and organisations in rural Wales, trying to develop an economic development plan for rural Wales. What was clear was that it was important for us to have a representative from the national parks on that group, and that’s because the national parks of course have a responsibility to protect beauty in the landscape they administer, but they also, as the planning authorities, have a responsibility to be a part of the answer to economic development in rural Wales, and not, as they’ve been portrayed in the past, a hindrance to it.

I want to be clear: I understand that the primary responsibility of a national park, according to the 1995 Environment Act, is to first of all

‘conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage’ of national parks. Secondly, their task is

‘to promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment’ of the special qualities of the park by the public. And thirdly, and importantly, the element that is often forgotten is that national parks also have that duty

‘to foster the economic and social well-being’ of their local communities. Now, what I didn’t understand until recently is that that is only a duty in as far as it relates to conserving beauty and to promoting the enjoyment of the park. I was very interested to hear Sian Gwenllian talk about what’s happening in Snowdonia. I’d be interested to know how they are managing to divorce economic and social well-being from those two things, because I don’t understand how that is in keeping with the 1995 Environment Act. It will be interesting to find out—[Interruption.] I think at the moment that restriction is there, and I think it’s important that we understand that it is quite a restriction in terms of their planning abilities.