Update - May 2014

Gwynedd Council have provided us with the name of a Senior Manager with responsibility for strategy development and external funding who will be our main contact point.
He will be able to help us with suitable briefs for studies to assess economic impacts. He will also be in a position to navigate our queries to the most relevant officer in different Departments.
This officer is also key to Gwynedd's discussions on developing priorities for the new round of European funding and he will therefore be able to advise us on the most suitable avenue to target funds for the project.

Update - April 2014

Over the last few months we have had a number of meetings which may have started to move the project 'up the agenda' with Gwynedd Council!
The first meeting on 17th January, facilitated by Elfyn Llwyd MP, was with Mr Dafydd Wyn Williams, Senior Transport Manager for Gwynedd Council and another member of his staff. At the meeting we had a discussion of the problems and difficulties of funding the new access and identifying the various stages that the project would have to go through. Mr Williams subsequently sent a long letter outlining and clarifying the points he made. At no time in the meeting did he seem to recognise the need for Gwynedd Council to 'adopt' the project as the competent authority.
On 12th February, Jamie Brooks, Gethin Williams and John Smith attended a meeting with Gwynedd Council and CADW to talk about the heritage status of the viaduct. We were informed about the importance of the '2 Star' Listed Building status of the viaduct. We discussed ways in which this might improve the case for the project. Improving access to a heritage feature might be part of funding applications we may need to make in the future.
On 31st March a meeting was arranged, again facilitated through Elfyn Llwyd MP, with Sioned Williams, Head of Economy and Community in Gwynedd Council and three of her staff. This was a very positive meeting where we discussed the project and identified the need for the community to work with Gwynedd Council. Four actions were identified:

1. Gwynedd Council would contact us in a months time (from date of the meeting) with the name of a sufficiently senior officer who we could work with to further the project.
2. Gwynedd Council would clarify whether the project might fit into the 'Building on our Strengths' strategy. If the project was included in that strategy it would then be positioned, alongside other projects from Gwynedd, to be developed for appropriate funding applications (EU, Tourism Wales, Lottery etc.).
3. Gwynedd Council will try to clarify how we as a community group are to work with them in terms of the project falling between Economy and Community and Transport/Highways. Maybe this will be clarified when 1 above is sorted.
4. A Gwynedd Council officer will get together (an) example(s) of economic impact/benefit survey(s) for similar projects which might give us a guide as to what is required. We could then work with the officer (see 1 above) to develop a specification for the study which we can then get costed and start raising the funds to get it done.

So we are currently awaiting these outcomes around the beginning of May.