Plans for new boardwalk at Welsh Mountain Zoo approved to improve disabled access

Plans for a new boardwalk at upper Colwyn Bay’s Welsh Mountain Zoo have been given the go-ahead to improve wheelchair and disabled access.

The National Zoological Society of Wales previously applied for permission to build the new boardwalk, which will now be constructed next to the zoo’s enclosures for tigers and red squirrels, to replace existing steps.

Conwy Council’s ecologist has recommended a protected species survey must also take place following yesterday’s meeting of the local authority’s planning committee where the scheme was approved.

In a letter to the council, a spokesman for the zoo said: “The zoo premises, being a hillside site, presents some degree of challenges for access around the site for disabled persons or people with some degree of mobility impairment.

“In recent years disability-friendly and accessible toilet facilities have been provided beneath the Safari Cafe with a disability-friendly boardwalk access across the slope to access the toilet facilities.

“However, from the location down past the tigers and towards the red squirrels, the visitors to the zoo are faced with the uneven and narrow steps down past the tigers to access the lower path; these steps are extremely difficult for anyone with a mobility impairment to negotiate, and the steps are completely unusable by wheelchair users.”

During yesterday’s meeting, Cllr Austin Roberts proposed that councillors backed the plans, and Cllr Trystan Lewis seconded the proposal.