Tourist numbers grow in the Beacons prompting urgent footpath campaign

The National Trust has launched a campaign to help repair footpaths in the Brecon Beacons.

The trust says the number of visitors to the area has doubled in the past five years.

The charity is embarking on essential footpath work ahead of what it predicts will be the busiest tourist season ever.

The Trust has cared for the central Brecon Beacons for 30 years, and spends around £100,000 each year maintaining footpaths. They're now asking for more funds to repair erosion ahead of the huge influx of visitors set to descend on the area this spring.

Lead Ranger Rob Reith started working for the Trust in 1986, and has been at the helm of footpath repair work for the past 30 years.

If work isn't carried out, the visitor footfall, combined with the changeable weather, would cause erosion, widening the paths. In the past this has created scars 30-40 meters wide with the loss of vegetation and 1000’s of tonnes of soil.

Since the Trust started looking after the area three decades ago, the charity has created over 15km of stone-pitched paths and 400m of drainage ditches.