Nineteen flats have gone on sale off-plan, the first tranche of a planned 46 ‘luxury apartments’ development in an iconic listed building on Aberystwyth seafront.

Ceredigion County Council planning officers gave the go-ahead in December 2019 to turn the ground and first floors of the former Ceredigion council buildings at Swyddfa’r Sir on Marine Terrace into 19 apartments, despite fears over parking.

Those one and two-bedroom apartments are now under construction and have been put up for sale, off plan, with John Francis estate agents,

Meanwhile developers have submitted outline plans to convert the upper two floors into 28 more flats, and are seeking listed building consent.

A previous planning application for the Grade II listed building - built as the Queens Hotel in 1866 - sought to change the use of the lower ground, ground and first floor of the building into a hotel and spa, with the plan financed partly through an application for European Regional development funding.

That funding fell through however, meaning plans to convert the upper floors into 28 apartments were also abandoned.

A plan to make the building fully residential was then resurrected, and the lower floor developments were approved by planners despite the council admitting that “the parking provision does not meet the Ceredigion Council Parking Standards”.

“The development is adjacent to pay and display public car park and there is short-term parking on the adjoining streets,” council planners said.

“The traffic generated by a residential development will cause less disruption than the fall-back use of a hotel or other commercial enterprise.”

The former Ceredigion council offices and magistrates court – which was used as the location for the fictitious police station in the hit television drama Hinterland - has been empty since the court moved in 2012 and the council vacated the building.

Concerns have previously been raised over the state of the building, with the council saying the development would “safeguard the future of a listed building, by providing a new use for a building which has proved difficult to find occupiers for”.

“The new use will also lead to the implementation of a more rigorous maintenance regime, which will safeguard the general public from further danger of wall and roof fabric falling off the building,” council planners said.

Aberystwyth Town Council said it was “keen to see the development succeed” but raised some concerns over the development’s details with “the fragmented approach of the planning applications” meaning there wasn’t “one coherent plan in order to properly assess the development”.

Listed with John Francis, the collection of one and two-bedroom flats start from £175,000.

Estate agents documents say: “The Queens Apartments is an exclusive development of 46 apartments arranged over four floors featuring a luxurious design-led contemporary interior.”