Bid to buy Lake Vyrnwy turned down
Wednesday 24th November 2010, 2:24PM GMT.
The man bidding to take over the Lake Vyrnwy estate has revealed he would like to buy the land outright. Rhys Jones has made a bid for much of the estate around the reservoir.
The 23,000-acre estate is owned by Severn Trent.
The water firm is offering the land for sale for £11 million on a 125,000 year lease.
Last night Mr Jones revealed to a packed public meeting in Llanwddyn that he had offered considerably more for the freehold.
“I wanted to write a much bigger cheque but Severn Trent has refused blindly to sell it freehold,” he said.
In an impassioned speech Mr Jones said the estate needed a lot of investment.
“There are empty homes with sheep walking through them, fencing needs painting, it is a disgrace,” he said.
“This is a unique place that I want to make a tourist destination, somewhere that people will stay a few nights and spend their money, not somewhere that people come to park up, eat their sandwiches and go home again.”
When questioned by residents about his plans, Mr Jones said he would first renovate the empty country homes on the estate for holiday lets then consider projects including log cabins, waymarked walks, a campsite and perhaps a playground and formal gardens beneath the dam.
But he ruled out larger tourist attractions such as a ski slope and said he would never consider seeing static caravans around the lake.
Other bidders at the meeting last night was representatives of the RSPB, bidding for the same lots as Mr Jones, and the Mid Wales Housing Association, bidding only for the portfolio of housing and other properties in Llanwddyn and close to the lake.
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