WORK on £1m plans to turn Aberystwyth’s Old Welsh School into a ‘café quarter’ could start before Christmas after the scheme was granted planning permission.

Ceredigion council planners have given the scheme the green light and Will Lloyd Davies, the director of developers Arbenigol, says the company is delighted to have been given permission and is now looking forward to finding a contractor, with the aim of work beginning before the end of the year.

The prominent town-centre building has struggled to find tenants after the Welsh Government moved to its purpose-built office at Parc-y-llyn, but Mr Davies said Arbenigol had already been contacted by interested businesses.

He said: “We are very pleased, especially given the positive and progressive way that both the council and CADW have viewed the application.

“We will soon be cracking on with the detailed design stage with a view to tendering the contraction package in the autumn and making a start on site pre-Christmas.

“We already have significant interest in the units and are now due to start actively marketing.”

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