Business park may bring 800 jobs

The proposed park could sustain up to 800 jobs

Plans for an industrial estate that could create up to 800 jobs could go to a public inquiry.

If given the go-ahead the park would be based on a 35-acre site lying alongside the A44 road at Capel Bangor, four miles east of Aberystwyth.

But it could be referred either to the Welsh assembly or a planning inspector could decide after an inquiry.

The application to Ceredigion council follows independent research which identified the need for more land in the Aberystwyth area for new and expanding businesses over the next 10 years.

There have already been objections to the project from the local community council.

But Ceredigion's's assistant director of planning, Tim Ball said he had told the community council the county would not be rushed into a decision "because we appreciate this is a controversial proposal".

Intense investigations

Mr Ball outlined two possible scenarios for the proposal, apart from being refused by the council's planning committee.

"If we decide that the proposal is at the heart of the UDP (unitary development plan) then it will be discussed at a public inquiry next spring and a decision will be made by the inspector about nine months later," said Mr Ball.

"If we decide that the proposal is not at the heart of the UDP and councillors agree to the development we will still have to refer the matter to the Welsh assembly."

The 35-acre site was identified as the preferred option after intense investigations into 15 potential sites in and around Aberystwyth over the past three years.

Melindwr community council will discuss the plan next month, but chairman Brython Davies would not comment until then.

Local people said they feared the development would affect Cwm Rheidol as a tourist attraction as well as destroy wildlife in the area.

The town's current major industrial estate based two miles from Aberystwyth town centre at Glanyrafon has only one vacant lot on its 80-acre site.

If approved the business park will be accessed from the A44 via a new roundabout.