'Unpleasant' visitors tombstoning into fast-flowing river causing havoc at Eryri tourist hotspot
North Wales Police officers have begun patrolling the area around Pont-y-Pair bridge, a narrow road crossing over the Afon Llugwy built more than 500 years ago. It follows complaints that groups of young yobs have been 'causing havoc' on the bridge and acting in a 'hostile' manner while jumping 20ft into the water below.
Due to the health and safety risks, at one point the area was covered by a Police Public Space Protection Order. A CCTV camera was installed with jumpers threatened with fines up to £100.
But the camera is no longer active and the local byelaw has expired. Last week a multi-agency meeting was held in the Conwy village to discuss 'social disorder and bridge jumping' - and to see if restrictions can again be imposed.
Betws-y-Coed Community Council accepted the tombstoning tradition has been going on since 'time in memoriam'.
But, in a statement, the council said: 'In recent times there has been a noticeable marked shift in behaviour and the characters it attracts, which contributes to social disorder, drug usage and alcohol-related anti-social behaviour.'
Trouble broke out last month when a large group of visiting youngsters descended on the village. Councillors heard the 'unpleasant experience' was accompanied by threatening behaviour as the visitors jumped into the river. They 'caused havoc by blocking the bridge to traffic' and, when they left, the area was strewn with litter.
At last week's meeting, Natural Resources Wales staff described related incidents at Llyn Geirionydd near Trefriw and the Miner's Bridge near Betws-y-Coed where groups of young people are wild camping and lighting fires. They said 'alcohol and open use of recreational drug use is a common occurrence'.
This summer's good weather is thought to have fuelled an uptick in bridge jumping. It's not without risk: a recent BBC episode of SOS: Extreme Rescues featured a 24-year-old man who was badly injured after jumping from Pont-y-Pair.
His predicament was dire because the Coastguard helicopter was unable to winch a stretcher into the narrow gorge. With other mountain rescue teams already tied up on callouts, it was left to a small group of six volunteers to get him on a stretcher and across the fast-flowing river.
Conwy Council has pledged to research other byelaws in the community to see if any of them can be applied to bridge, and find out who has powers of enforcement.
Such is the depth of concern in the village, the community council is prepared to dip into its funds to find a solution.
They said: 'The community council will obtain a cost for the installation of CCTV which will be live monitored at the patrol room.
'If the CCTV camera was to be replaced and live monitored, the police would respond to an alert from the camera control room staff.'
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