Anger as historic Gwynedd railway tunnel plagued by racist and anti-vaccine graffiti | So Good News

Racist and anti-vaccine graffiti plaguing a historic railway tunnel has been condemned by council leaders.

‘Tynal Tywyll’, an old railway tunnel which carried slate between Bethesda and Tregarth, was reopened as part of the Lôn Las Ogwen cycle route between Bangor and Bethesda two years ago.

But since its reopening after 60 years, it has been subject to a number of cases of graffiti and vandalism which have resulted in damage to the lights in the tunnel.

Councilor Dafydd Meurig, Cyngor Gwynedd’s cabinet member for the environment, said much of the graffiti conveys “baseless comments” about the Covid vaccine and has recently included “extremely racist references”.

“Lôn Las Ogwen is a very popular path and families of all ages have enjoyed traveling through the old railway tunnel in recent years,” he said.

“It is very sad to hear of this anti-social behaviour, particularly the racist element. The graffiti is mindless vandalism that can cause nuisance to those walking or cycling along the path, there is no place for it anywhere.

“In addition to the inconvenience this unsightly graffiti causes to residents who use the trail, the cost of cleaning the graffiti and repairing damage takes limited resources and staff time. This is time and money the council could use better to maintain and improve Lôn Las Ogwen.

“It is disappointing that the behavior of a minority of people detracts from the enjoyment of local people and visitors from around the world who use Lôn Las Ogwen, and is also derogatory to a minority group.

“We ask those responsible to respect public property and consider the impact of their behavior on the local community. If anyone has information about this case, they should contact the police immediately.”

‘Take care of’

Inspector Arwel Hughes of North Wales Police said graffiti is a crime, it is expensive to remove and there is no victim.

“It can have a significant effect on those targeted and we always encourage people to report to us so we can investigate,” he said.

“This type of offense will not be tolerated and will be dealt with robustly, so I would urge people to be vigilant, report offenses and call us on 999 if they see a crime in progress.”

Tynal Tywyll gave the name to the Welsh pop group from Tregarth.

The incident has been reported to the police. Anyone with information about these incidents should contact police on 101 or www.northwales.police.uk quoting incident number B132336.