There’s nothing like a threat to tea and cakes to mobilise the mountain biking community. Singletrack World broke the story of Sian and Dafydd Roberts, who run the popular cafe at Coed y Brenin, being given 28 days’ Notice to Quit by Forest Enterprise. Since then it’s probably found its way to every on-line MTBer in the country (and indeed a number of other countries), giving rise to a tide of correspondence to FE… And it appears to have worked. A release from FE says:
Forest Enterprise appreciates the contribution that Dafydd and Sian Roberts have made to the undoubted success of mountain biking at Coed y Brenin. Their formal agreement to run the tea room and information centre at Coed y Brenin ended 3 years ago. We have been unable to reach a new agreement with them since that time. Their continued occupation left Forest Enterprise with no alternative other than to bring the present confused arrangements to an end.
However, Forest Enterprise is prepared to let Dafydd and Sian continue their occupation of the visitor centre, subject to them accepting an offer from Forest Enterprise to run from 1 May 2003 until 31 October 2004, which is the expected life of the centre.
Forest Enterprise has already announced plans for a new visitor centre at Coed y Brenin. When the new centre opens there must be a fresh competition to secure operators. Dafydd and Sian will have an opportunity to compete, along with others. The new visitor centre will build upon and enhance Coed y Brenin’s reputation as a centre for world class mountain biking.
In making changes to the arrangements at Coed y Brenin, Forest Enterprise has not been driven by profit, but a wish to offer ever-increasing numbers of mountain bikers the best possible facilities and services. We aim to listen, understand and respond to the needs of our biking customers and other forest users.
Few would argue that an improved centre at CyB would be a good thing – the current one isn’t all that large and changing facilities and showers and things would be splendid – and we hope that Sian and Dafydd get to run the new cafe. After all, they haven’t merely “contributed” to the success of Coed y Brenin – without them the trails we know and love wouldn’t even exist…
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