One of the UK's top ski slopes has been damaged by fire, staff say. Pontypool Ski Centre in Pontypool is understood to have been targeted by vandals sometime between Friday, August 26, at 7pm and 9am the following morning.
Members of Pontypool Ski Racing arrived for their training session on Saturday, August 27, after a successful visit the evening before, to find the top of the ski slope completely destroyed. Photos shared by the club's chairperson show the "starter ramp" has been flattened and burnt.
Appealing to those who damaged the ski slope, Pontypool Ski Racing said: "We wish the people who did this would actually come and join us, we’ll get you on skis and you can be part of a brilliant club, a fantastic sport and enjoy this facility that we’re lucky to have in our community!" You can get more Pontypool news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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Chair of the Club, Sara Jones said: "There's a 230m slope at the centre, it's one of the best ski slopes in the UK. We understand someone set fire to the starter slope sometime after 7pm on Friday [August 26] and 9am on Saturday [August 27], when we arrived. The gates were locked but the area around is quite open.
"We open to the public in October, we've been using the centre for our training, us and another club. We can still train [further down the slope] but not start at this point."
"The community needs this facility," she added. "We have around 60 members including five British champions across all the categories from under-10s to seniors. It's [the ski centre] is owned by the Torfaen Leisure Trust and we've just recently had a grant from SnowsportWales, thankfully [the area we funded with the grant] has not ben damaged."
Gwent Police has confirmed the incident is being investigated as arson.
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