It is bad enough that Natural Resources Wales plans to close all three of its visitors centres in Wales. That all three are located here in mid Wales is worse. But worst still is the agency’s deliberate mistruths on the closures.

Case in point is the information provided by NRW to the Labour Government that the centres will be kept open with minimal staffing.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The reality is that there won’t be anyone to feed the red kites that come in their hundreds each day to Bwlch Nant yr Arian just outside Aberystwyth.

Nor will the visitors centre there be open. There will be no one serving refreshments. And no one to inform and educate the tens of thousands of visitors who go to to the site to see one of the great natural spectacles of this nation.

At Ynyslas, there will be no one in the visitors centre to serve refreshments. Again, the whole educational side of the area will be lost. They might as well let the dunes slowly take over. Nor will there be staff to take fees for parking. But saddest of all, there will be no staff to rope off nesting areas; no one to gently ward off visitors from treading in the delicate dunes; no one to protect or record the delicate orchids that only bloom there once in a while. The whole educational value of the site will be lost.

At the same holds true at the unique mountain biking centre at Coed y Brenin. The vistors’ centre will be locked and shuttered. Good luck to you if you break a leg on a trail - you’re on your own and we only hope you can get a signal in those hills and forests. And no, there will be no one there either to manage those natural resources.

So much for toilets, access for disabled, paths that provide access to all.

So, NRW, come clean.

Don’t inform ministers that you’re keeping the areas open. That is an untruth. It is a tale propagated by spin doctors who would convince Cardiff Bay that black is white. Shame on you.

Don’t take the people of this region for fools.