AN ABERYSTWYTH councillor has criticised developers who flout their planning permissions after an Aberystwyth development was allowed to stay despite safety concerns.

Cllr Ceredig Davies addressed members of the Ceredigion council Development Control Committee on Wednesday to rail against an application by Vallis Facilities Management to alter its permission for 22 flats at the site of the former Tabernacle Chapel on Mill Street.

The developers were forced to apply for a variation to a condition imposed when the initial application was approved in February 2014, because a bay window was encroaching too far over the pavement below.

A report submitted as part of the application said one of the bay windows of the building was 500 millimetres further out than initially planned as the walls needed to be thicker than proposed to meet insulation standards.

Despite the application being approved by members, and no objections over the change in design lodged by the Trunk Road Agency or the council’s highways department, Cllr Davies told members that developers should not “be allowed to build what they want”.

“When we as a council give planning permission, they are not guideline notes,” Cllr Davies said. “They should be followed to the letter."

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