Madam,

If someone had said in 2013 that the five-storey buildings on Aberystwyth promenade, below Constitution Hill, would within a few months be facing waves which over-topped their roofs, the speaker would have been regarded as an extreme alarmist. Yet so it happened. The innumerable still and movie shots from January 2014 show just that. Aberystwyth University pro-vice-chancellor Rebecca Davies was quoted as saying that the buildings (student accommodation) were in effect the sea defences at that time.

If those high tides and storm surges had coincided with storm force winds from the north-west instead of the south-west, the five-storey waves would have been breaking over the iconic 19th century Old College building instead.

Is the building capable of withstanding such an onslaught? Storms are going to get worse and more frequent, the forecasters say. It is only a matter of time before a storm from the north-west approaches. I for one would not be investing anything in the Old College until the building had storm shutters, repaired windows, a non-leaking roof (for at present the problems with the roof are chronic), and possibly reinforced stonework at the most exposed points. All the plans for the future of this much-loved building seem to gloss over this obvious and uncomfortable truth.

The university has got a listed building on its hands which it cannot afford to maintain, still less to reconstruct, but is not allowed, neither by law nor by public opinion, to allow it to fall into ruin. What is to be done? Surely an appeal which directly addressed the structural problems of a vulnerable building close to the rising sea would be the most transparent way to proceed?

Yours etc

Carol Nixon,Penuwch, Tregaron.uk