Centre supporters in triple challenge (From Malvern Gazette)

Centre supporters in triple challenge

12:46pm Monday 10th September 2007 in News

TWO supporters of outdoor education from Malvern will be getting on their bikes for a triple challenge to help save the centre at Llanrug in Snowdonia.

The centre, one of three operated by Worcestershire County Council, is under threat of closure as the council seeks to cut costs.

Charles Eden, chair of Worcestershire Outdoor Education Development Association, and Mike Forecast, operations manager at the centre in West Malvern, are taking to the road as part of the campaign to save it.

They are setting out from the Malvern centre on Wednesday, September 26, and will try to reach Llanrug the same day, going via the other centre at Upton Warren, a total distance of about 225 kilometres.

The following day, they will will put on their mountaineering shoes and climb six of Snowdonia's 3,000-foot peaks, including Snowdonia itself, at 3,560 feet the highest peak in England and Wales.

And on the third day, they will swim four kilometres in Llyn Padorn, a mountain lake, before jogging two kilometres back to Llanrug.

"All of this is to draw attention to the fact that that the cabinet of the county council have voted to sell off the flagship centre in Snowdonia," said Mr Eden.

"All we ask in the first place is the chance for the centre, in common with the other two centres, to have a go at operating at nil expense to the county council, that is, receiving no subsidy whatsoever."

A website supporting the fight for the outdoor centre has been set up at www.outdoor-ed.org.uk. A petition to Parliament to save Llanrug is at petitions.pm.gov.uk/Llanrug.