Bryn
Elltyd - A sustainable B&B
An
environmentally sustainable visitor centre selling ethical food?
Small
scale hydropower development on a farm in Snowdonia National Park
Bryn
Elltyd - A sustainable B&B
Bob
and Ann Cole have developed a 6 bedroom Guest House, near Blaenau Ffestiniog,
which fully embraces the ethos of sustainable tourism.
Whilst keeping original features, imaginative extensions and modernisation
provide a warm and friendly atmosphere in an ecological and sustainable
building where guests can enjoy an inviting and relaxing holiday which
has limited negative impact on the environment. Open all year, it has
an acre of semi wild grounds and is surrounded by wild and beautiful
mountain scenery in the centre of the Snowdonia National Park.
Buildings:
• The house is insulated far beyond the minimum requirements of
building regulations.
•
The solid fuel fire provide heating and hot water using wood from their
own trees.
•
All the electricity comes from sustainable sources.
•
Solar collectors, on the garden room and south facing gable end of the
main house, provide heat for water and central heating.
•
The water comes from the mains and is metered, whereas the sewage is
disposed of in septic tanks, one of which filters into the pond which
contains native brown trout. The reed bed help filter the water of impurities
as well as providing habitat for frogs, toads and newts
Food:
• Fruit and vegetables are bought locally and organic when possible,
with some grown in the garden
•
Organic lamb and beef from Ty Isaf Ffestiniog, pork from Llan Farm in
Llanfrothen and organic chicken from Corwen.
•
Free range hens eggs from Trawsfynydd, and duck eggs from their own
ducks.
•
Majority of other food is bought locally to support the local economy.
•
All tea, sugar, hot chocolate and coffee is from Fairtrade sources.
•
Fish - they aim to follow the Marine Conservation Society Guidelines
and purchase all fish from Psygod Lleyn in Pwllheli
Grounds:
•
One acre of grounds is managed to attract and support a variety of wildlife
Day to Day Management:
• Bedding and towels are changed only at the guests request.
•
Visitors are requested to turn lights out when they leave rooms (the
hall and outside lights are left on as a safety precaution.
•
Standby on appliances are switched off.
•
Visitors are requested to shut all doors to keep the heat in.
•
All cans, paper & bottles are recycled and vegetable matter is composted.
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An
environmentally sustainable visitor centre selling ethical food?
At the Green Flag award-winning Worcester Woods Country
Park, with its 51 hectares of woodland and meadows, Worcestershire County
Council has been working hard to promote ethical messages in a variety
of different ways. The
existing Countryside Centre was built in the late 1980's and had always
been very popular with visitors. However, our needs had outgrown the
building; our visitors wanted more seating in the café and outside
by the play area, increased shade in the summer and more community meeting
space. Countryside Service staff had been housed in portakabins for
several years, which were unlikely to be re-awarded planning consent
and we were short of secure storage space for our work vehicles, timber
and tools.
We were lucky enough to secure several grants from the Liveability Fund,
Heritage Lottery Fund, Environment Agency and our own County Council
capital programme to develop an extension to the existing visitor centre.
With the help of our own Property Services team, who are becoming nationally
renowned for their development of sustainable buildings, including schools,
an environmental education centre and new library and history centre,
we came up with a design to suit our needs. Our visitors had been involved
in this exercise through Focus Groups, comments cards, visitor surveys
and open days, so their ideas were all put into the melting pot as well.
What we came up with was a new eco-building alongside the existing refurbished
visitor centre. This houses Countryside Service staff, the reception
and enquiries office and two new community meeting rooms. The design
includes a sedum (green) roof, sustainable timber, a woodfuel boiler,
and recycled newspaper insulation.
The two buildings are connected by a shady pergola over a large sun
terrace. Part of the development also included the creation of the 'Worcestershire
Garden', a quiet, enclosed area for community and event use which has
been landscaped with features and species distinctive of the county,
such as fruit trees, an old fashioned apple press, a pond and wildflower
area.
The existing visitor centre was given a revamp with improved lighting,
a larger indoor seating area and state of the art touch-screen interpretation
and information. An innovative approach was used for the new furniture,
which was not actually new at all! Through the 'Green Chair' project,
we asked people to donate their old wooden chairs which were restored
where necessary by our own staff and all painted in the same shade of
green. This was the answer to our lack of funds for purchasing new furniture,
but it also had an important recycling and anti-landfill message. A
new leaflet rack and two breakfast bars were made in-house from oak
milled ourselves from the woodland on site; again, another message about
sustainable sourcing of what you need, for little money.
All we needed now was ethical food. The visitor centre cafés
at both our Country Parks are run on a franchise basis, each with a
tenancy of five years. We had recently been successful in securing a
new café tenant at our other Country Park, Waseley Hills, near
Birmingham, and from that we had been able to gain some useful experience
of trialling a more specific visitor and sustainability focussed lease.
Our café tenant at Worcester Woods had been with us for many
years, but felt it was time to move on to pastures new. This gave us
an opportunity to push our sustainable food agenda even further than
before. Of course, a normal business lease is usually quite standard
and stems from a profit making point of view. With our visitor centre
leases, whilst the income we receive for them is vital to our work,
they exist to enable a high quality service to be given to our visitors.
It is in the interests of both us as a County Council and our tenant
to work together in partnership to deliver this. A good relationship
and understanding the same values are key.
With this in mind, we aimed to attract a certain type of business from
the start. We have learnt many lessons on how to secure a tenant from
the past. Standard newspaper or catering magazine ads are very expensive
and generate little interest, so we opted for displaying a large banner
at the roadside, combined with press coverage and placing an eye-catching
half-page colour advert in the local paper.
We aimed high, suggesting that we wanted our new Orchard Café
to become the place in Worcestershire to come for ethical food. By ethical,
we mean offering Fair Trade, free range (meat and eggs), local and organic
where possible. We also included strict conditions about packaging and
waste and that any gifts and other merchandise sold in the visitor centre
were to be sustainably sourced, such as crafts that are Fair Trade or
made by local people.
The response was very positive and we shortlisted twelve potential tenants.
We then took them through a rigorous selection process, more akin to
a job interview than a commercial transaction. But it proved its worth,
our new tenants, Guy and Nett Ward, have a wealth of experience in the
catering industry, from cooking, to restaurant management and staff
training for companies such as Frankie and Bennies and Prêt a
Manger. They also have a love of the countryside and the part it has
to play in producing good quality wholesome food.
What is so valuable about Country Parks is the combination of things
they offer. People have come to expect certain facilities to be available
on their visit; a visitor centre with a café, toilets, information
and interpretation, children's play area and way marked trails - all
set in a pleasant 'natural' environment. What this offers us as practitioners
is the ability to get across important messages and showcase examples
of good practice in sustainability.
The Countryside Service is able to accommodate visits from other organisations
who want to find out more about initiatives like those above, and other
subjects such as working with volunteers, health and safety management,
business development, community engagement and income generation. If
you would like to discuss a package tailored to your needs, then please
contact Rachel Datlen, Countryside Greenspace Manager on 01905 766493
or rdatlen@worcestershire.go.uk
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Small
scale hydropower development on a farm in Snowdonia National Park
The
sight and sound of a powerful stream cascading down a steep hillside
in the Snowdonia National Park has far more significance for farmer
Tegwyn Jones than its spectacular beauty.
Almost
five years ago, Tegwyn, who farms three holdings totalling 420 hectares
in partnership with his wife, Catrin, near Mallwyd, Powys decided to
install a hydro-electric scheme to harness this previously wasted energy.
One of their prime reasons - apart from hoping to get addtional income
- was to help ensure that the farm is sufficiently viable for their
three sons to return to work there after completing their education.
The
venture has been so successful that the couple are about to invest almost
£500,000 on a second scheme half a mile away.
The
idea for this came initially during an open day help by Andy Rowland,
of local regeneration organistion, Eco Ddyfi, but there is also a family
connection since Tegwyn's grandfather set up a hydro-electric scheme
in the 1930s to serve the village of Dinas Mawddwy.
"The
first scheme, constructed with the help of a grant from Eco Dyfi, produces
an income of approximately £15,000 per annum," said Tegwyn.
"This sum is a tremendous boost to our farming income with minimal
labour input and low maintenance."
The
scheme produces 340,000kwh of electricity to the national grid, which
is estimated as being enough electricity to serve 60 dwelling houses.
Phase
2, which should be ready in 2009, will have the capacity to produce
550,000kwh. It is being built with the help of Cymad, a Welsh Assembly
Government funded project that supports innovative community development
projects, based on the principles of sustainable development.
Stocking
on the three holdings consists of 800 Welsh Mountain ewes with 200 ewe
lambs kept annually as replacements. Lambs are finished on farm and
sold through Graig Farm Organics.
Cattle
consists of 24 Welsh Black suckler cows crossed with a Limousin bull
with all calves finished on rented grazing at Ffostrasol, Ceredigion,
which is shared with his brother Elwyn.
The
farms were part of the Tir Cymen Scheme when Meironnydd was chosen as
a pilot area in 1992, and at the end of the 10-year agreement all the
land was entered into the Tir Gofal Scheme. All the land is farmed organically
following successful conversion, which commenced in 2001.
Source:
Gwlad, Issue 61, February 2007, Welsh Assembly Government
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