A senior figure at Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority has called on the Welsh Government to carry out a fresh review of how national parks in Wales are funded, warning the current system is no longer fit for purpose.

The authority has spent several years addressing the recommendations of a critical 2021 Audit Wales report, Delivery of Change, which highlighted weaknesses in governance and decision-making. However, recent attention has shifted from governance to the park’s worsening financial position.

The issue has been brought into sharp focus by former board member Christopher Coppock, who published a critical letter following the appointment of the NPA’s chief executive, Catherine Mealing-Jones, as Auditor General for Wales. In his letter, Mr Coppock argued that the authority is now in a worse financial position than when she took up the role.

He also pointed to the park’s latest budget, which relies on just under £700,000 from reserves to balance its books. At a meeting in March, finance officers warned that this approach is unsustainable, with reserves potentially being exhausted by 2029. This would leave the authority effectively unable to continue operating.

Despite these financial concerns, Audit Wales has confirmed that the authority has completed the actions set out in its 2021 report. In a letter to the NPA’s audit committee in December, Audit Wales director Gareth Lucy said the focus would now move to financial sustainability rather than governance.

He said: “The position has changed since 2021 and we consider the most significant risks to the authority’s good governance to be the need to address its financial position and its capacity issues.”

Mr Lucy added that revisiting the earlier recommendations would not be necessary, as the authority had taken the steps it intended to in response. Audit Wales therefore considers those recommendations to be concluded.

Park chairman Councillor Gareth Ratcliffe, who represents Hay-on-Wye on Powys County Council, acknowledged the seriousness of the situation. He said the authority was taking early action and had received a “clean bill of health” on governance, but stressed that finances now posed the biggest challenge.

“We’re in a difficult financial position, but we’re making decisions early and moving forward... You can only do one thing at a time, and we have prioritised governance, which has now been addressed.”

Cllr Ratcliffe argued that the root of the problem lies in the way national parks are funded, relying heavily on a core grant from the Welsh Government. He said the timing of additional project grants, which often arrive later in the financial year, makes it harder to set balanced budgets from the outset.

“We’ll be bankrupt in three years unless things change,” he warned, adding that the authority has experienced a 53 per cent real-terms cut in funding since 2010.

Describing the system as “archaic”, he said Bannau Brycheiniog is working alongside the other Welsh national parks to press for a revised funding model.

Audit Wales has also made further recommendations in a report published in September 2025 urging the authority to introduce medium-term financial planning to address its projected budget gap.

The call for reform now places pressure on the Welsh Government to reconsider how it supports Wales’ national parks as financial pressures continue to mount.