Dear Miss Wood and Mr Rees,

Only you can now save Cardigan Castle.

For the last few months the Tivy-Side has campaigned for the castle to be looked after by a public trust - a campaign backed by 3,500 local residents.

An asking price of £1.25m puts the castle out of reach of the public purse. All we can ask you now is to let Cardigan have the castle.

If you hand the castle - and all its liabilities - over to the county council or a trust you will go down in history as the people who gave Cardigan back its castle.

According to Brut y Tywysogion, in 1200 Maelgwyn ap Rhys sold Cardigan Castle the lock and stay of all Wales for a little weight of gold and all the curses of all the clergy and lay-folk of Wales.

Eight hundred years on, £1.25m is that little weight of gold.

Cardigan wants the castle - it could prove the lifeblood of a town that has suffered economic ravages over the past century.

Can you really pass up this chance to prove you do care for the castle and the town?

Mr Rees, you are a local man. Last month you said: "I am a Welshman and I would like it to stay in Welsh hands." Will it? It could if the castle was owned by a Cardigan-based public trust.

Miss Wood, in 1940 you had the foresight to tell Cardigan Town Council: "If the council would only have vision and a unanimous aim this town could become a Welsh Stratford-upon-Avon, with the castle, the birthplace of the Eisteddfod, as the focus." Will that vision ever come true? It could if the castle was owned by a public trust with grant-getting power to restore the castle and Castle Green House to some of their former glory.

Castle Green House is deteriorating rapidly. How long can it stay up for sale? A year? A decade? Can you afford that? Can Cardigan?

The future of this most important part of Cardigan heritage lies in your hands.

Dont be haunted by 800-year-old curses. Let Cardigan have the castle.