On Thursday (7 January), the Snowdonia National Park Authority in north Wales decided to close all its car parks to block visitors from breaking Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
People in Wales have been instructed to stay at home and unnecessary travel has been banned under alert level four restrictions, which have been in place since 20 December and were renewed today for three further weeks.
Nevertheless, a “high volume of people” have been found ignoring the rules, according to the authority’s chair Wyn Ellis Jones. The national park has seen a rise in visitors to its beauty spots since Christmas, North Wales Police officers have “stopped and turned away” several hikers wanting to climb Snowdon (some who had travelled from London and Milton Keynes in south-east England), and staff manning the car parks have even reported “abuse” in the past week from members of the public.