THE Dolau Inn in New Quay will have a new lease of life after plans to turn the closed pub into a hotel were approved.

The pub has been closed since 2016 and, despite a push from residents to see it put on the market as a drinking establishment, its owners believe this would be unviable.

SA Brain and Company applied to Ceredigion County Council to change the pub to a hotel, supported by the nearby Penwig Hotel which it also owns, to meet the needs of tourists in the area.

It would provide eight en-suite rooms.

Members of the Development Management Committee voted in favour of the change of use, with one councillor voting against, before it was pointed out that a representative from the town council had not been given the chance to speak.

Cllr Huw Willams told the committee that there was a “great deal of opposition in New Quay to this application”.

The pub has a cultural link to Dylan Thomas as well as historic and economic reasons against losing a public house, he said.

If the application maintained a pub downstairs with accommodation upstairs the town council would have been happy to support it the committee was told.

A second vote was taken on the application with three now against the plan but a majority of 10 voted in favour.