RESIDENTS are celebrating after Bingham Lane, Cardigan, was finally resurfaced by the county council following a long-running ownership dispute stretching back 20 years.

During this period elderly residents of the nearby Llys Owen sheltered housing complex have been forced to run the gauntlet of a rutted lane riddled with potholes which one local likened to the crater-strewn surface of the moon.

But the lane – once thought to have been part of Feidr Fair during the days of the horse and cart – received a long-awaited makeover last week after County Hall finally agreed it was their responsibility after it was established it had formerly been owned by the old Ceredigion District Council.

Delighted residents watched as council workmen took less than an hour to resurface a 50m stretch of the lane to finally put to an end a bitter dispute stretching back two decades.

“Bingham Lane was already a long-running issue when I was elected as a councillor way back in 2004,” Cllr Mark Cole told the Cambrian News.

“Llys Owen, the Tai Cantref-owned sheltered housing block, was built in the early 1990s and residents have had to negotiate a lane littered with potholes ever since.”

Cllr Cole said the issue remained unresolved for so long because the deeds could not be traced.

“Tai Cantref have been very helpful and the logjam was only cleared when one of their officers found paper­work proving the lane had been the responsibility of the old district council,” he said.

Llys Owen resident Mavis Parker said: “There were potholes galore. It was quite simply appalling.”

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