CEREDIGION councillors have won their battle with a retail giant for Welsh to be as prominent as English on a trademarked exterior sign - but not in the way they expected.

Members of the council’s planning committee told M&S that its ‘Foodhall’ outside sign must be translated into Welsh as a condition of giving the go-ahead to all the other proposed signs in the store on Mill Street.

Marks and Spencer said that, while every other sign in the store will be bilingual, the Foodhall is a brand, and as such won’t be translated.

The store opened last week with a blank white wall above the door where its ‘Foodhall’ sign would have been as the row rumbled on.

Since the store opened however, the company has confirmed to the Cambrian News that the blank space will not be filled, and the ‘Foodhall’ sign will now not appear in English or Welsh.

There is, however, a large and prominent Foodhall sign just inside the front door.

A spokesperson for M&S said: “We no longer intend to include a Foodhall sign outside our new Aberystwyth store.

“Directional signage throughout the store is in both Welsh and English and we are proud to have recruited a number of bilingual colleagues to help customers.”

See this week’s south editions for the full story, in shops and online tomorrow