RESIDENTS have called on Aberystwyth University to widen a road as part of plans for its new £40m Innovation and Enterprise Campus near Penrhyncoch.

Despite overwhelmingly positive responses from those who attended the university’s AIEC community consultation event at Penrhyncoch Village Hall last Tuesday, a number of concerns were raised.

In particular, residents claim the university are “building on sand” because they do not plan on widening a narrow stretch of road which, it is claimed, already suffers with congestion without the addition of heavy goods vehicles and heavier traffic.

“They are building on sand — the plan will fail because they have failed to plan infrastructure,” said Penrhyncoch resident Peter Cartlidge.

“There is nothing at all wrong with what they want to build, but they have failed to consider the extra heavy traffic that will be coming and going during construction.

And Cllr Dai Mason said: “I welcome this new development at Gogerddan — it will be a great asset to the area.

“However, as this is the gateway into Penrhyncoch and the surrounding villages, a small gesture of goodwill to the community would be to widen the road down to the crossroads as part of this development, on safety grounds.”

Responding to the concerns, Rhian Davitt-Jones, senior planning consultant, said: “An initial transport assessment was carried out and, with the 45 jobs to be created, we plugged that into a simulator which told us there would not be a significant impact on the highways system.

“However, we do hear the concerns and we do continue to have that dialogue with Ceredigion County Council.”

The public consultation is open until Wednesday, 16 November.

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