CEREDIGION County Council chiefs say ‘greening’ action plans drawn up for Cardigan are a scoping exercise aimed at identifying potential town projects.

They were responding to claims by traffic campaigners that a ‘Ceredigion: A Strategy for Greening 6 Ceredigion Towns’ document was looking to pedestrianise Cardigan town centre ‘by stealth’.

In a letter going before town councillors next Tuesday, members of the ‘We Say No to Cardigan Town Pedestrianisation’ group maintain the plans will have ‘serious ramifications’ on the town’s future.

They fear the plans could lead to further traffic diversions and are calling on councillors to ‘be pro-active in challenging this Greening Towns Strategy’.”

But County Hall say Land Use Consultants were commissioned to prepare Green Infrastructure Action Plans for the county’s six main towns – including Cardigan - in order to build on the existing Ceredigion Green Infrastructure Assessment.

“Following research, targeted engagement and consultation, LUC undertook a scoping exercise and identified five potential green and blue infrastructure projects for each of the county’s six towns,” said a spokesperson.

“These formed the respective Town Action Plans (that) set out the purpose of the potential projects, potential key partners for delivery and the potential cost.

“The purpose of the Action Plans is merely to assist any interested parties, should they wish to progress the projects, by providing an initial level of information to inform any potential funding bids, should funding arise.

“The council are not necessarily bringing these projects forward, nor is there guaranteed funding available.

“This was just a scoping exercise to identify potential projects, and they are in no way planned for pieces of work.

“Should stakeholders be interested in progressing any of these projects, then they would need to undertake further detailed work including undergoing consultation with other relevant parties.”