A LARGE vehicle has damaged the wall of an Aberystwyth development that was given the go-ahead despite warnings that the bay windows stuck too far out and could cause safety problems.

Aberystwyth councillor Ceredig Davies warned that a decision last year to grant an alteration to plans for 22 flats at the site of the former Tabernacle Chapel on Mill Street to allow bay windows which were built further out than agreed, could lead to damage by lorries.

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 at the time told members that developers should not “be allowed to build what they want”.

This week, Cllr Davies said: “An accident that was so predictable has happened and it gives me no pleasure to say, that I told you so.

“Despite my efforts at the planning committee to point out the inherent danger of what had been built the planning committee decided to grant permission.

“Less than 12 months after the retrospective planning permission was granted what I and others predicted has happened.

“One of the bays has been damaged by what I was told was a passing vehicle."

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