A call for works to make a former Lampeter high street bank which closed back in 2023 more disability accessible have been lodged with Ceredigion County Council planners.

Lloyds Bank closed its Lampeter High Street branch in May 2023 which it said followed a decrease in people using the branch to do their banking.

Lloyds at the time said the closure was due to a rise in people using online or telephone banking instead.

It was one of a number of branches closed in 2023 across the UK and the second bank to close in the town in less than a year, following Barclays’ closure the previous August.

The property has been vacant since Lloyds Bank terminated its lease in October 2023.

Since then, an application was recently submitted by Deborah Hebel to introduce disabled access to the Grade-II-listed building, at 9 High Street, Lampeter through the alteration of an existing side entrance door leaving the elevation to the listed building unaltered.

A supporting statement through agent Studio Southeast said Lloyds itself had submitted a 2018 accessibility scheme, which was declined on the basis of the harm to the listed building.

Since the branch closed an extensive marketing campaign has been commissioned by the applicant seeking a tenant for the vacant ground floor which identified the absence of a disabled access as having a significant impact on future lettings, the statement says.

That application was granted at the start of the year, and a listed building consent application for works, including the removal of the soft non-load bearing fittings associated with the previous use of the ground floor and basement as a bank, in preparation for the introduction of the disabled access has now been submitted.

The application will be considered by Ceredigion County Council planners at a later date.