CARDIGAN continues to plough ahead with state-of-the-art technology aimed at helping the town become a better place to live.

That is the view of town mayor Cllr Clive Davies who pointed out this week that Cardigan was showing the way with analytics and apps after becoming the first town in Ceredigion to offer free Wi-fi and a town app back in 2017.

“The town - as part of an all-Wales initiative - is piloting how sensors could be used to monitor and alert events,” Cllr Davies, now in the final weeks of his mayoral year before handing the chains of office over to Cllr Debra Griffiths, told the Tivy-Side.

Back in February last year he revealed how a new technology called LoRaWAN – a series of sensors designed to react to different events – could be used to pinpoint anti-social behaviour.

“They’re small, quite effective and not very expensive,” he said at the time. “Here in Cardigan we’ve had numerous instances of life buoys either being thrown into the river or vandalised.

“So sensors such as these – if implemented successfully – could be very useful in reacting to such events when installed in places like the skate park which could be subject to anti-social behaviour.”

“Since then things have slowly developed under Covid and Cardigan Town Council are working with Ceredigion County Council on what other applications could be supported, such as light levels on streets, waste bin levels, hyper local temperature monitoring and many more.

“The hope is that we will be able to provide better monitoring of events or identify patterns to be able to make informed decisions and workflows.

“One idea which I’d be particularly interested in developing is monitoring the level of fresh air within schools and hospitality venues.”