A WELSH national park has scrapped its English language name in a bid to show a commitment to the Welsh language.
From Monday, the Brecon Beacons national park is also changing its logo of a fiery greenhouse gas-emitting beacon as it launches a new plan designed to tackle issues created by the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
The park in southern Wales is now to be known as Bannau Brycheiniog – pronounced Ban-eye Bruck-ein-iog – national park or informally The Bannau.
Bannau is the plural of “ban” which means peak in Welsh, while Brycheiniog refers to the kingdom of the fifth-century king Brychan, so the name translates into English as the Peaks of Brychan’s Kingdom.
The new logo features nods to a king’s crown and the starry skies, hills and watercourses of the park.
The move has left some senior Conservative politicians fuming, criticising it as a symbolic attempt to look “trendy” which could “undermine” the regions international identity.
Brecon and Radnorshire’s Tory MP Fay Jones questioned the cost and impact of the “symbolic” rebrand and demanded to know why local people were not consulted.
“I’m amazed that a change of name should be imposed on those who live and work in the National Park without any consultation,” she said.
“I am worried that this is symbolic. This is about looking trendy and jumping on a sustainability bandwagon for PR purposes.”
Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies said: “The Beacons are as recognisable outside of Wales as they are here. Why undermine that?”
The launch is being promoted with a new short film, written by the novelist, poet and playwright Owen Sheers and featuring Michael Sheen.
It is entitled Cynefin, a Welsh word Sheers defines as a “landscape which, as you step into it, feels like arriving at your hearth”.
It also shows less picturesque aspects of the park, including rubbish which has been dumped, polluted water and wildfires.
According to the film, it’s a place “hooked” on carbon, diesel, petrol and oil and looks forward to a future that it hopes the new plan will created.
Actor Sheen said: “National parks have a vital role to play in providing for nature, for people, and for our shared future.”
He welcomed the new name as “an old name for a new way of being”.
The park authority’s CEO Catherine Mealing-Jones said: “The more we looked into it the more we realised the name Brecon Beacons doesn’t make any sense.
“It’s a very English description of something that probably never happened. A massive carbon-burning brazier is not a good look for an environmental organisation.”
Downing Street said it expected people to carry on using the Brecon Beacons name and actions “rather than nomenclature” were the key to tackling climate change.
“The public, I’m sure, will continue to … use both the English and the Welsh names,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
Asked if other places called “beacon” should be renamed, the spokesman said: “I think on the specific issue of climate change, I think it’s tangible action that’s important, rather than nomenclature.”
