If former Aberystwyth mayor Kerry Ferguson wants to guarantee her election in May as a Member of the Senedd, she would do best to have a serious chat with all of the Plaid Cymru councillors sitting on Ceredigion County Council.

She needs that shower of clapping seals for once to ignore the advice being shoved down their throats from the corner office at Aberaeron and support what the overwhelming majority of people of Aberystwyth want when it comes to council plans for Plascrug bridge.

For years, the bridge has been a vital link over the railway tracks linking facilities like the school and Aberystwyth Rugby Club and the leisure centre with the southern side of the town.

Not that you'd ever know it was vital.

In typical Ceredigion County Council style - has CEO Eifion Evans shares in scaffolding or fencing companies, I wonder? - the bridge has been wrapped in scaffolding for years.

Just like the sink holes on Tan Y Bwlch beach, the Wellington monument up on Pendinas hill and the bridges at Aberystwyth Castle, the council has jury-rigged support and fencing and hopes the eyesore will simply go away.

Whole generations of schoolchildren have completed their education at Plascrug school without ever having seen the bridge devoid of its scaffolding skeleton.

If there's one thing that Eifion Evans loves, it's a wad of cash from the Welsh Government for projects in Ceredigion that the glorified schoolteacher and his cabal of cronies can screw up.

And the latest example of Team Evans screwing up is Aberaeron harbour.

It must gall Eifion that his swanky corner office overlooks the harbour as its silts up with each tide. The project, 85 per cent funded by Cardiff Bay, ran months behind schedule, has created a shale bank at the mouth of the Aeron that the council now has to pay to remove, and doesn't work. Oh, and taxpayers in Ceredigion are on the hook for nearly £5 million because of the botched works.

But Eifion, you see, has another wad of cash on hand - money that is supposed to finish the "active travel" network around Aberystwyth.

That glorified bicycle path is, you've guessed it, months behind schedule and many wonder if it, like the Aberaeron Harbour sea defences, will also come in over budget. But heck, what's a bit more red ink to a council that has about £130 million of it on its books?

And Eifion wants to use the Welsh Government funding to build a new bridge, right slap in the middle of the school playground.

There are three options currently being considered and are currently open for a public consultation.

In Ceredigion, the phrase “public consultation” means that the council is going to do exactly as it pleases and the great unwashed residential horde that pays the bills can go and whistle.

Harsh? Not at all.

The good folks of Aberaeron know all about public consultations when it came to council plans to move the town’s library. Hundreds spoke out and hundreds were ignored. The only opinion that matters is Eifion’s and you know what that means when it comes to Plaid Cymru councillors following his line.

The good folks of Aberystwyth have experienced shafting too when it came to the promenade and parking. Hundreds spoke out and hundreds were ignored. The only opinion that mattered was Eifion’s - despite a Plaid promise to voters in a town by-election that they would not allow parking charges to go ahead. Well, the meters are up and the charges will take effect just in time for Easter.

The rugby club and the school along with countless residents have all expressed their preference for the current bridge to be repaired or replaced where it is. Eifion wants a new bridge built as Ceredigion haven’t managed to screw up anything new in the town in weeks. Mind you, the clowns in Ceredigion roads department did a pretty good job shutting down traffic the week before Christmas all to fix a manhole! Bah humbug to businesses trying to make money in the lead up to Christmas!

Could someone get Eifion a decent Lego set to keep him busy playing and away from projects that impact the people and businesses of the largest town in the county?

Cllr Carl Worrall from Penparcau seems to be the only one with a spine in the Plaid caucus on Ceredigion, and he knows all too well the challenges faced by residents in the town in maintaining the status quo at the bridge.

May’s Senedd election is looming and the threat of losing Plaid support over the bridge should be considered by voters in Aberystwyth. And that’s why Kerry needs to get the clapping seals on Ceredigion council on board and keep the bridge where it is.

Afterall, if Plaid can’t run a council how can it run a country?