A firm assurance that Cardigan’s Tesco junction will be re-opened this year has been given by the Welsh Assembly Government.

News that the project was being scrapped stunned locals this week.

Ceredigion highways chiefs revealed to the county’s Cabinet on Tuesday that WAG officials had told them that the scheme would not go ahead because of cuts in the Assembly’s capital programme for road improvements.

But the next day transport minister Ieuan Wyn Jones gave an assurance that the project is still in the schedule for the current financial year.

A spokesman for his department said: "No announcement has been made about the Tesco junction. Despite pressures on our capital programme, we fully intend to proceed with the scheme and plan to reopen the junction later this year."

Ceredigion AM Elin Jones said: “The information given at the Cabinet meeting on the Tesco junction was clearly wrong.

“The commitment to re-opening the Tesco junction with traffic lights remains and the Assembly Government will undertake the work this year. It is hugely important to Cardigan that this junction is re-opened and I have campaigned long and hard to see the junction re-opened. I'm glad that confirmation has been given once again that this work will progress."