THE RECENT ROW at the public inquiry into the proposed
atomic power station at Trawsfynydd, in the North Wales National Park, has brought a long-standing conflict into the open. National Park committees tend to be unpopular with the working population (as opposed to the visitors) in their districts, since they are suspected of inter- fering with the livelihood of the local people in the interests of 'scenery.' At Trawsfynydd the conflict of interests is particularly fierce : on the one hand there is the local Welsh community, demanding the power station becabse it would provide work to compensate for the declining slate-quarrying industry; on the other hand the idealists and nature-lovers (mostly English) con- demning the project because it would spoil the beauty of the neighbourhood. 'Bread before Beauty' and 'The Welsh way of life is more im- portant than scenery' are two of the current catchwords. The result, as so often with these public inquiries, is probably a foregone conclu- sion. The Welsh will get their power station and some temporary employment, and the wild land- scape of Trawsfynydd will receive an alien presence (later, perhaps, a gigantic ruin).
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