“Democracy in Ceredigion is dead”. That was the claim from an Aberaeron town councillor as she resigned last week.

Mair Harrison quit after 13 years on the council, blaming a “total deficit of democracy in Ceredigion”.

In her resignation letter, she said of the newly reintroduced safe zone in the town: “The town council has never been consulted, nor even been given copies of the plans of what is being done; it is as if locally elected representatives don’t exist.”

“Democracy in Ceredigion is dead,” she wrote, adding that the “unelected” Gold Command at the county council is “seemingly intent on destroying this Ceredigion gem with nobody to answer to”.

“We, at the town council, don’t even know what they’re doing.”

Mair added: “I feel we speak for the people of Aberaeron. But we can’t speak for them. We have no powers, we’re not consulted, we have no idea what’s going on in our own town.”

Mair added that town council’s views weren’t taken into account over plans for the old hospital, and accused the county council of “abdicating responsibility” for the clean-up of the town.

Ceredigion council said responsibility lies with police and they are “actively engaging with businesses in the town”.

See this week’s Cambrian News for the full story