Stop Press

18 August 2006

We expect to be running Ty'n Cornel under a 5 year lease from the new owners from 1st November 2006. We also expect Dolgoch will be offered for sale in February 2007 so we shall be asking for the promised donations as soon as we can sort out a form. We're still waiting for formal registration with the Charities Commission. There is an open meeting at Dolgoch on Sunday 17th September at 11 am.

Newsletter 2

20 July 2006

The story so far

On 1 February 2006 the YHA announced that the two remaining Elenydd hostels, Ty'n Cornel and Dolgoch, were to close, along with 30 other hostels, in order to pay off some of their large debts and to concentrate resources on 'the more popular areas'. The closure of Blaencaron, the YHA's least-used hostel, had been announced in December 2005. These would have left a large hole in the former network between Brecon and Borth where, ten years ago, there used to be six simple hostels.

First meeting

The three Elenydd hostels had been mainly run and maintained by volunteers in recent years and there was a widespread feeling that something must be done to save them. A group of volunteer wardens, hostellers, local people and other supporters held a well-attended meeting in Tregaron on 29 April 2006. They decided to form a charitable trust to try to buy and run some of the hostels.

Progress

• 'Elenydd Wilderness Hostels' was set up and has held meetings at Ty'n Cornel in May and Blaencaron in July.
• A business plan was drawn up for the running of Ty'n Cornel and/or Dolgoch. Blaencaron had already been put up for sale at £175,000 but was considered too expensive for the time being.
• A website www.elenydd-hostels.co.uk was set up with information, photographs, maps and links, and has been improving all the time thanks to the hard work of the webmaster and several other contributors.
• Supporters have offered over £30,000 in donations towards buying Ty'n Cornel and Dolgoch in amounts varying from £10 to £10,000! We shall ask for these when the Trust is formally registered. Several hundred pounds has also been given to cover expenses.
• We now have about 400 supporters on our mailing list.

Ty'n Cornel for sale

On 14 May the YHA suddenly put Ty'n Cornel on the market at an asking price of £125,000, following publicity in a Sunday newspaper. This was a devastating blow as we had not expected to have to raise so much so quickly. We were not yet in a position to bid yet bids were to close on 5 June.

Two of our supporters, a couple from Cardiff, made an immediate bid at the asking price and opened talks with us about running the hostel. We discussed outline terms and they lobbied the YHA. There was quite a lot of interest in the property and the price went up.

After a considerable delay, we recently heard that the YHA has accepted the couple's bid. It seems that we were very lucky that it was not sold for 'holiday lets' or something similar.

The buyers

The couple who are buying the hostel had been walking with friends between the three Elenydd hostels at Easter and had decided that Ty'n Cornel must stay open as a hostel to keep the beautiful Doethie valley area accessible to walkers and lovers of these wild places. They want to remain reasonably anonymous, but to satisfy curiosity - they are professional people in their mid thirties living in Cardiff and have taken out mortgages on their own homes to raise the money.

The lease

We are now negotiating the details of the lease of Ty'n Cornel for an initial period of 5 years, at an affordable rent considerably below the commercial rate. We hope to be able to renew this for further periods if we are able to run it satisfactorily. If the new owners decide to sell within the first six years, the Trust will be offered an opportunity to buy the hostel at the market price.

Running Ty'n Cornel

We intend to run Ty'n Cornel under an 'enterprise agreement' with the YHA so that it will still appear in the handbook and on their website. In general we intend to run it along similar lines to the YHA but with more publicity and more support from our members. There are still many things to sort out: laundry, bookings, lock(?), winter opening, rotas, fuel, insurance, furniture, CRB checks, concessions, work parties, fire regulations, phone(?), etc. There will be an opportunity for members to have an input on these at our next meeting at Ty'n Cornel on 5 August.

Membership

You will soon be able to become a member of the Elenydd Wilderness Hostels Trust by completing an online membership form. Membership will cost £10 for individuals, £25 for groups and £50 for corporate membership. It is hoped that the money we raise from these subscriptions will help to balance the books.

Registration

We expect to be registered by the Charity Commission as a charitable trust in the next few weeks. We shall then be eligible for Gift Aid and will start asking for donations towards buying Dolgoch, which we expect to be up for sale next year, and perhaps Ty'n Cornel sometime in the future, and towards running the Trust.

How can you help?

All of us involved so far have to work and also have other interests, so our time is very limited. Can you offer the Trust any skills and time? We particularly need help with the following:

• Fund Raising. Please join our group if you have experience or ideas. There is a lot of work to do before Dolgoch comes up for sale next year. Contact Bill.
• Maintenance. We want to keep our expenses down by tackling a lot of the work ourselves. We need someone (or several people) to co-ordinate and direct this. Help from anyone with skills or a trade would be appreciated, plus plenty of help from those simply willing to get their hands dirty and 'muck in'! Contact Maintenance.
• Publicity. We need someone with experience and ideas to co-ordinate publicity. We need to get leaflets in Tourist Information Centres, articles in magazines as well as the local and national press. (One of our supporters had an excellent interview from the hill above Ty'n Cornel on Radio 4's 'Excess Baggage' programme two weeks ago.) We also need to promote our website and get more links to it. Contact Publicity.
• Survey. We need a property survey before we take on Ty'n Cornel (and Dolgoch!) Do any of you have qualifications as a surveyor ...or is anyone willing to help pay for it? Contact Marilyn.
• Local Group. If you live in the Tregaron / Lampeter area, can you join a group to support the hostels and help with the day-to-day running throughout the year? Contact Marilyn.
• Secretarial. Do you have skills and time to help with administrative work or IT? We need help organizing the membership, mailing lists, replying to emails and keeping track of ideas and offers - these all take time to follow up. Contact Bill.
• Donations. You can, of course, help by donating towards buying Dolgoch (and perhaps eventually Ty'n Cornel.) We shall remind you of this when the Trust has been registered, in the meantime we would like to know if you intend to give money later. Some of you might like to consider leaving a legacy when the Trust is up and running. Or what about offering to help with one of the Trust's expenses in running Ty'n Cornel - for example pay for a load of coal each year or supply the toilet rolls! Contact the Bill.
• STAY AT TY'N CORNEL. If all our supporters try to stay at Ty'n Cornel for at least a night or two next year, it will all work, and with your feedback we can make it better. Plan a trip to the Elenydd in 2007 now. Encourage your friends to go and try it too. If you are in a YHA local group, put it in the diary.

Event in September

We are thinking of holding a weekend of walks between the Elenydd hostels to bring together younger people, people from the local area, committee members and other supporters, ending with a barbecue on the Sunday. Contact JJ or Bill if you are interested.

YHA closure dates

The YHA has just released details of the closure timetable for the Elenydd hostels:

• Blaencaron will stay open until 30 September 2006 and they hope to sell it by 31 October. They are still open to bids in the region of £150,000.
• Ty'n Cornel will stay fully open until 31 October 2006 and may then be available for bookings under the 'Escape to' scheme. Sale completion should be around the end of the year and we hope to be running the hostel early in 2007.
• Dolgoch will stay open until 30 September 2007 with an anticipated sale completion date of 31 October 2007.

Elenydd memories

Send your memories, stories or comments about staying at Dolgoch, Ty'n Cornel or Blaencaron to Sue or Marilyn.

Meeting on 5 August

Come and have your say at Ty'n Cornel at 1100 hrs. Book with the YHA if you plan to stay. Parking is limited so how about cycling or walking?

• The nearest train stations are Llanwrtyd Wells (26 km / 16 miles via the Soar y Mynydd footpath) or Aberystwth (45 km / 28 miles by road)
• By bus: the X40 service between Cardiff and Aberstwyth stops at Lampeter, then take the 585 bus from Lampeter to Llanddewi Brefi, followed by an 11 km / 7 miles walk. (Timetables are available at www.ceredigion.gov.uk.)
• Walk over from Soar y Mynydd (grid ref 785533, 3 km / 2 miles) or up the Doethie valley from near Rhandirmwyn (grid ref 775472, 8 km / 5 miles).

Contacts

Marilyn Barrack, Chair
Bill Hine, Secretary