STAFF at Aberystwyth Town Council will have a day off for St David’s Day, councillors have decided, after the UK Government refused to devolve powers to Wales to set its own Bank Holidays.

The move by Aberystwyth councillors, which will give the council’s clerk and deputy clerk the day off, followed Gwynedd council’s cabinet agreeing to plans to make 1 March a bank holiday for council workers last month.

The motion to make the day a holiday for staff was put before Aberystwyth Town Council members by councillor Jeff Smith at a meeting on Monday.

Cllr Smith said: “It’s a great shame that the Westminster Government has not allowed the Welsh Government to make the day a bank holiday in Wales.

“But the town council has now joined a number of institutions and other employers that have created a bank holiday for all intents and purposes for their staff.”

Cllr Kerry Ferguson called the move a “fantastic step forward.”

“As a town council, we are keen to see a new bank holiday added to the calendar here in Wales to celebrate our patron Saint.

“We want to fly the flag in Ceredigion, and we hope others will follow suit.

“There is a long history of celebrating St David’s Day in Aberystwyth, and we wish to see this grow over the coming years.”

Wales is the only nation in the UK not to have the power to decide its own national holidays, and both Scotland and Northern Ireland have chosen to make the days dedicated to their patron saints, St Andrew and St Patrick, bank holidays.