Town celebrates new era for quay

The £2.5m waterfront project has taken three years to complete

The end of a £2.5m regeneration scheme in a Ceredigion coastal town has been celebrated with an arts event.

The three-year project in Cardigan has seen the Teifi estuary dredged and renovation work at the town's Prince Charles Quay.

Up to 300 moorings, three slipways and a new landing stage and visitors' area have been introduced.

Former royal harpist Catrin Finch and local singer and actor Ryland Teifi performed on the quay on Friday.

The project to restore the coastal area is an attempt to attract more visitors into the town, which was once home to one of the UK's busiest ports for migration across the Atlantic 200 years ago.

In Friday's celebration, called Hywl Aberteifi, a flotilla of boats travelled down the estuary from Gwbert, to St Dogmaels and then Cardigan's new quay.

New era

It also included local schoolchildren and poet Bard Ceri Wyn Jones.

The £2.5m Teifi estuary project has been part-funded by the European regional development fund through the Welsh Assembly Government.

Keith Evans, leader of Ceredigion Council, said the project was "returning the river to its former glory".

He said: "The waterfront is changing."

Ceredigion AM Elin Jones said: "I have always thought we ought to make more of our river. In continental Europe rivers are central in the towns.

"We have turned our back on the river over the years and now there is a reconnection and this quay is great to have as the majesty point of the river Teifi."

Bob Macey, Chief Executive from the Welsh European Funding Office, said: "This beautiful estuary is the sort of sustainable asset we like to make more of."

Brian Gibbons, economic development minister, said the event would mark the start of a new era in the history of the waterfront.