THE Brecon Beacons National Park will close its Waterfalls Centre in Pontneddfechan and make three redundancies in a bid to save more than £200,000.

Park authority members who met behind closed doors have also agreed the information service and shop at its main visitor centre, known as the Mountain Centre in Libanus, will be granted a stay of execution until September 30.

The rest of the centre will remain open after its shop and the information service closes at the end of September.

Park authority chair Mel Doel: "All local Authorities are facing difficult decisions and we are no exception.

"Today we agreed a series of actions which will produce a balanced budget. The difficult decisions we took were informed by the staff consultation and the responses we received from the public. We pride ourselves on being a listening authority and I think the outcomes from today show that."

The park authority has been consulting with staff since early January on eight proposed redundancies as well as seeking their views on how to respond to a 4.7% cut in its funding from the Welsh Government.

The park had outlined to staff proposals to close the Watefalls Centre and the information service and shop at Libanus but hadn’t publicly confirmed them.

Alternative proposals to meet the required savings will now be considered by a park authority working group who will bring a revised paper to be considered at the authority’s June 10 meeting.

A park spokeswoman said: "There has been a misunderstanding that the National Park Visitor Centre (outside Libanus) is in jeopardy even though the original paper did not include a proposal to close the centre. Instead the plans addressed the future of the visitor information service and shop area; at no time has closure of the tea rooms been proposed."

Parts of the exhibition currently housed at the Waterfalls Centre could be moved to the village hall when the centre closed on June 6. A park spokeswoman said officers are in talks with representatives of the local community to explore interest.

The Cwm Porth information point and car park will remain open, offering access to the waterfalls area. The Geopark Centre currently located at the Waterfalls Centre will be moved to Craig Y Nos Country Park.

Other savings include working with county and borough councils in the park area to find how they can continue to manage rights of way.

The spokeswoman added: "Within the Brecon Beacons National Park, councils have delegated duties maintain rights of way to the national park authority and make a small financial contribution to delivering that work.

"There are no proposals to make changes to the excellent maintenance work undertaken by wardens and volunteers on rights of way across the national park."

It was also agreed some of the park’s planning services would be delivered electronically to deliver savings.