REPAIRS to a car park wall in Aberporth, which was left shattered when a car driven by an elderly woman ploughed into it last month, were beginning this week.

Back on Friday, 29 April, the car smashed into the stone wall at Ship Inn Corner, and then rebounded across the road before coming to rest in the opposite verge, bringing shocked staff from the adjacent Starfish Cafe running outside to see what had happened.

The impact sent large slabs of concrete tumbling onto an empty car parked directly below, leaving it badly damaged, but neither the shaken elderly driver nor any passers-by were injured.

Now Ceredigion County Council, which owns the wall, is launching repairs.

The news will come as a relief to Aberporth Village Hall as the loss of several parking bays would have seriously affected their takings over the forthcoming bank holiday.

“We were initially told Ceredigion council was planning to start work this Monday, but then Gethin James, our local county councillor, told me that the start date had now been changed to next Monday,” Aberporth Village Hall chairman Dai Ogilvie told the Cambrian News.

“They are going to put in scaffolding which will obviously protrude over the side of the wall and, as a result, we will lose six parking spaces a day, which is why we’re going to make a claim to the council.”

The incident came just six months after a car driven by pensioner Peter Boothroyd careered through a fence above Dolwen Beach, plunging 12 metres onto the sand below.

Mr Boothroyd escaped with chest and rib injuries but the incident prompted the Village Hall Committee to look into the possibility of erecting some form of barrier at the spot in a bid to prevent similar accidents.

Recalling last month’s crash, Mr Ogilvie said: “I was in the kitchen and Rachel, my wife, was out putting washing on the line when she heard a huge bang.

“At first we thought our own wall had been hit, but when I went outside I saw this big hole in the car park wall.”

It later emerged that the owners of the parked car, who had only bought the vehicle a few weeks earlier, had watched in anguish from Glanmordy Steps on the other side of the village as the episode unfolded.

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