The Snowdonia National Park Authority has announced that it will make St David's Day a holiday for staff.
This comes after Gwynedd Council and Aberystwyth Town Council granted its workers a day off to celebrate the national day. Neath Port Talbot council is also looking into a similar move.
Despite the UK Government rejecting the plans for a national bank holiday, the park authority has approved a proposal to mark the importance of St David's Day.
Following a consultation with staff, on March 1 the Authority's staff will receive an extra holiday to note the occasion.
Read more: Spotify and Welsh language music: A global audience but 'pennies' from it
In response to the announcement, Wyn Ellis Jones, the Eryri National Park Authority Chairman said: "As March is a quieter time than usual for the Authority with commercial centres closed or running on reduced hours and staff, we anticipate that the cost will be very minimal, if any to the Authority.
"The staff received the extra day of holiday last year as a reward for their hard work over the pandemic and we feel that the same should happen again this year."
Wales is the only nation in the Union not to have the power to decide its own national holidays, with Scotland and Northern Ireland both having Bank Holiday days dedicated to their patron saints, St Andrew and St Patrick.
Recently, Neath Port Talbot Council announced it was considering making St David's Day a holiday for council staff of the county. Caerphilly Council has announced that it is lobbying both the Welsh and UK Governments to make St David’s Day a bank holiday in Wales.
Despite the Welsh Government's calls to make the day a bank holiday, Paul Scully MP, the minister for small business, said too many people commute across the Welsh and English border to make it feasible.
In response to the Gwynedd Council’s request, Paul Scully wrote: "While we appreciate that the people of Wales want to celebrate their patron saint, more people work across the English/Welsh border than across the English/Scottish border.
"This closer degree of integration could cause greater business disruption. If we had separate bank holidays in England and Wales, the impact on both employees and businesses is difficult to predict."
To get the latest email updates from WalesOnline click here.
.png?w=600)
