£50m project hopes for 600 jobs

The Bath House project goes before Ceredigion council on 30 July

A £50m project to build a new hospital and supermarket in Ceredigion could create up to 600 new jobs, developers have claimed.

Liberty Mercian also intends to build housing and a doctors' surgery on the Bath House site in Cardigan.

The project's original plans were given the go ahead in September 2006, but work was delayed when a landowner refused to sell a piece of land.

The plans have since been re-submitted and go before planners on 30 July.

There was a public inquiry into the project in 2005.

The scheme then hinged on a piece of land owned by local man T Ieuan Davies, who refused to sell it to Liberty Mercian because he feared the project would add to the town's traffic problems.

'Economic climate'

But the developers have revised their plans.

They said between 550 and 600 jobs would be created by the construction of a new supermarket, three non-retail units, a hospital and a healthcare centre.

Emyr Williams, development director of Liberty Mercian, said: "The Bath House scheme will also see more than 600 new jobs being created at a time when there are concerns not only about the current economic climate, but also, the long term prospects for rural areas in Wales."

Ceredigion council said plans for the Bath House site would go before planners on 30 July and the proposals offered Cardigan "significant benefits", not least in the number of potential new jobs.

"Whilst Cardigan has experienced a number of employment generating developments in recent years, those are not on the same scale as the Bath House proposals," said a spokesman.