95% of staff working for the Snowdonia National Park are fluent Welsh speakers, new figures have shown.

A report discussed by the Snowdonia National Park Authority (SNPA) during its meeting at Plas Tan y Bwlch on Wednesday, noted that of the park’s 143 members of staff, 136 are fully bilingual.

The Snowdonia National Park, or Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri, was set-up in 1951 to cover 827 square miles of designated land across both Gwynedd and Conwy local authorities, covering a population of  26,000.

But this 95% figure means the workforce has a greater percentage of Welsh speakers than its base village of Penrhyndeudraeth (76%) and the National Park area itself (58.6%).

The SNPA has been operating fully bilingually for a number of years, maintining a policy that correspondence should be sent out in the preferred language of the recipient with all front office staff also able to converse in both Welsh and English.

But in a bid to boost its bilingual workforce, 20 vacant posts were advertised during 2017/18 – all of which were classed Welsh language skills as an essential requirement.

Employees who cannot fully communicate in Welsh are also encouraged to attend Welsh language courses and training, which can be undertaken in work time.

A spokesperson for the SNPA, said:  “As an Authority, we are very proud that so many of our staff speak Welsh. “The Welsh language is one of Snowdonia National Park’s special features and we have a duty to protect and promote it.

“In the past, our language policies have enabled us to normalize our Welsh language services, which means that the residents of the National Park know that a service through the medium of Welsh is available to them automatically and the ability to communicate with the residents of Snowdonia in the language of their choice, is very important to us.

“In terms of our internal procedures, the English and Welsh languages are treated equally and although it can sometimes be difficult to appoint Welsh speaking staff to specialist posts here, we are proud to say that, on the whole, we are extremely successful.”