Three months after the Aberaeron's £36m flood defence project was completed, Ceredigion County Council has acknowledged it will be paying for remedial works. And that's on top of £4.75m it overspent on the works.

The long-awaited flood defences for the town included a controversial breakwater extending out of the harbour mouth facing southwards.

The large breakwater - commonly referred to as 'the hockey stick' - has become a scoop for the debris of the sea floor, catching the shingle, silt and sand pushed up by the typical south-to-north longshore drift.

This has created a growing shingle bank in the harbour entrance, making it “impassable” to all but dinghies, according to harbour users.

Aberaeron Councillor Elizabeth Evans has called for the work to be done before the lift-in boats return to the harbour in spring.

She has also requested that the navigation posts “recognise the changing environment within the harbour mouth and on its approach”, as there are currently no warnings to guide boats around the growing mound.

The council has since posted a ‘Local Notice to Mariners’ online warning of the potential hazard, and is consulting on the best way to remove the bank sometime this Spring.

A council spokesperson said: “The council is currently investigating options for removal/reduction of the shingle bank in the next two to three months.

“Removal of the shingle bank will be funded by Ceredigion County Council.”

Councillor Evans said on this: “There is a recognition from everyone concerned that the channel needs to be clear of debris and navigable.

“I am having many representations regarding this from boat owners, who are obviously very concerned, and that is completely understandable.

“The situation is a dynamic one, and I am confident that a way forward to address all these issues, for both the short and long term, will be found.

“It must be found.”

But there are numerous questions about the project, over what engineers said and what Ceredigion decided to do.

The construction work - the Welsh Government paid for 85 per cent of the original estimated cost of £31.59m - was carried out by BAM, with AtkinsRealis acting as the engineers.

Cambrian News posed a list of detailed questions at AtkinsRealis including whether the firm carried out extensive marine and tidal flow assessments, and computer simulations of the project; whether it recommended 'the hockey stick' be moved to the south of the river entrance; and what input Ceredigion had in altering the plans.

Cambrian News asked the company to supply it with original engineering reports on the second phase of the project. The first phase - along the north shore - were completed without the controversy the second phase has created.

The company told Cambrian News its dealings with the client - Ceredigion County Council - were confidential, and it wouldn't be answering those questions.

Cambrian News also posed a list of detailed questions to the council. These include whether any present or former staff engineers provided assessment reports that questioned the project plans. It has also asked the council if any engineers who worked on the project and who provided reports that pointed out flaws in the approved design, were currently the subject of unfair dismissal proceedings.

The council has yet to respond to those detailed questions.

Cambrian News has also requested full engineering reports and project documentation from the Welsh Government through Freedom of Information channels.

Reacting to the news that the dredging work will be taken out of the council’s budget, one Cambrian News reader called for the designers to foot the bill, whilst another asked whether the council would be paying for it “once or forever?”

One commenter said: “Read [the headline] as ‘Residents of Ceredigion will be footing the bill’.”

Another suggested it may be easier to build another breakwater in the long run.

Ceredigion did not respond to the Cambrian News’ request for comment on how much it was estimated to cost, and how often they anticipated the work would be needed to keep the harbour clear for users.

The controversy comes as new footage reveals the enormity of the growing shingle bank.

Harbour user Bryn Raw-Rees went out with his drone to capture the mound at low tide.

The local surfer, who has used the harbour for 30 years and is a former geographic analyst, said: “Really, I was just curious about the mechanics of the new ‘mound’ and wanted to analyse it from above.

“I think the footage [from 5 January] shows exactly what’s happening.”

The footage shows a large build-up of shingle on the south side of the harbour entrance, and a lower build-up of sand that both appear to be coming from the beach to the south of the harbour.

The project, which was years in the making, was designed to protect the harbour from floods, which locals defend as doing just that.

However, mariners have come out against the design, which they consistently state is “facing the wrong direction”.

Bryn brands it as “GCSE level geography”: “My take is that they’ve interrupted the predominant south to north longshore drift.

“This has created two new accretion zones as the natural transport of sediment has been prevented.

“The mound will keep getting bigger, as will the sandbank, until the south-to-north transport [of sediment] can happen again.

“The shoreline north of the breakwater will also be sediment-starved.

“Basically, the breakwater is too large and is designed to work against nature instead of with it.

“It should have been built smaller and the other way round to block the predominant and much more powerful South Westerly swells, to allow longshore transport of sediment and eventually that would have built up Cadwgan Reef, which would have helped block North Westerly swells.”

Ceredigion County Council has defended the scheme which built the breakwater facing south, as data showed the storms that caused the most flooding in Aberaeron came with winds that were from the West/ North West.

A spokesperson for the council added that sediment build-up was predicted at the design stage, but that any intervention needed to be done after the new features had been allowed time to settle.

The mound has already been removed once before completion of the project in October 2025.

The spokesperson said: “The council are in the process of consulting its engineering consultants on this matter to formulate an agreed plan moving forward.

“This will consider various alternatives on how to deal with the issue.”

It has since become the subject of much speculation and humour online.

Residents in local social media groups have dubbed the mound ‘Eifion’s Mound’ after the council CEO Eifion Evans.

Local John Butler created an AI image of bathers lounging in deck chairs on the mound alongside an ice cream van, describing it as a ‘secret beach in west Wales’ which one person dubbed 'Costa del Aberaeron’.

John said: “I have recently been playing around with AI imagery and as I live near Aberaeron and visit often, seeing this, and having a sense of humour, I couldn’t resist!”