LAMPETER residents are celebrating after winning their battle to stop developers building 20 social housing flats on the site of the old Ffynnonbedr school in Bryn Road

John Crowther, speaking on behalf of local residents, said they were “delighted” and “totally vindicated” after the application from Hacer Developments was thrown out by Ceredigion planners.

Mr Crowther said: “Had the application been consistent with the Local Development Plan then there would have been little opposition.

“What we have never been able to accept is the way in which, in early 2016, the Local Planning Authority (LPA), without consulting Lampeter town or county councillors, could meet with the applicant in what we understand was an unminuted meeting and endorse such a major scheme which is totally at odds with LDP.

“It seems to us that having effectively given the applicant the green light the LPA have had little choice but to back the application and to ignore the major concerns raised in the written representations made by over 150 local residents.

“It has been reassuring to see that a majority of councillors on the Development Control Committee withstood the pressure put on them by the LPA, and our faith in the democratic process has been fully restored.”

However, the council has been warned by one of its own officers that it was on “shaky ground” to refuse the application and is likely to lose any appeal.