'Amazing' landscape's lottery aid

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Red grouse and mountain ponies will be among the beneficiaries of a proposed lottery grant to preserve an historic landscape in the south Wales valleys.

Blaenavon won world heritage status in 2000 to recognise its part in the growth of the iron and coal industries.

Now it has been earmarked for £1.6m Heritage Lottery Fund money to "protect and promote" the surrounding area.

Welsh fund chairman Dan Clayton Jones said it would help to conserve an "amazing and diverse landscape".

When Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) designated Blaenavon and the surrounding area a world heritage site it was in tribute to the importance of south Wales as the "world's major producer of iron and coal in the 19th Century".

The Forgotten Landscapes Partnership said the new grant would allow it to "breathe new life into the historical and industrical landscape in Blaenavon". This award means so much to everyone who has been involved in developing the project ideas over the last 18 months Steven Rogers, Forgotten Landscapes Project

The group said it had been seen by many as "a derelict and neglected wasteland".

The projects in a 70 sq km area which contains five sites of special scientific interest will include the conservation of red grouse, restoration of historic wetlands and the return of Welsh mountain ponies.

The partnership also said traditional breeds of cattle would go back to the area for the first time in years.

Other schemes include restoration of buildings and ancient monuments, opening up the landscape to greater access, and urging local people to become involved.

Volunteers will be taken on as guides for walks and be responsible for land management "to reinstate a sense of pride in the area".

Mr Clayton Jones said the partnership could now "conserve the historic character of this amazing and diverse landscape, its culture, important industrial archaeology and wildlife, which would otherwise be lost forever".

'Forward with confidence'

The group has received a "stage one pass" from the Heritage Lottery Fund, meaning that the grant has been provisionally awarded while more detailed plans are drawn up.

Steven Rogers of the Forgotten Landscapes Project said: "This award means so much to everyone who has been involved in developing the project ideas over the last 18 months.

"The partnership can now move forward with confidence and deliver the vitally important heritage projects that local people want to see."

It is a partnership between 130 agencies, including local councils, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority and the Environment Agency.

Welsh Assembly Government Deputy Minister for Regeneration Leighton Andrews said it will build on the work and investment under way "which is boosting the tremendous tourism potential of Blaenavon".