Plans to build two new homes in Cardigan have been refused by council planners after numerous concerns were raised about road safety in the area.

The scheme to erect two new two-bedroom homes on a plot adjacent to 20 Castle Street was met with fierce opposition from residents, and was the second attempt at gaining permission to build on the plot.

A previous application, with a different parking and turning area, was refused by planners and then dismissed at appeal by Welsh Government inspectors.

The fresh application said that Castle Street was now a 20mph limit and “therefore a reduction in visibility splays would be applicable” as the previous application was refused by both planners and on appeal by inspectors on “highway safety grounds.”

Residents, Cardigan Town Council and the council’s highways department all lodged objections to the latest scheme on the same grounds.

Objectors said the plans are a “danger to pedestrians using the pavement, particularly school children” and that there were already “numerous bus and car accidents on this road” and the development would “increase traffic to a very busy area” where access to the site is “extremely limited.”

Rejecting the application under delegated powers last week, Ceredigion County Council planning officers said “the reduction of speed along Castle Street to a 20mph does not overcome the unacceptable risks to highway safety that would arise as a result of the proposed development.”

“The proposed development would result in the creation of an access to serve two dwellings on a stretch of classified highway which carries high number of traffic movements, and this along with the reduced visibility splay to the south, the proximity of the site to the adjacent commercial premises and busy Station Road junction opposite serving the industrial estate, would result in combined detrimental effects that would give rise to unacceptable risks to highway safety and the free flow of traffic,” a council planning report added.

The application was also refused by council planners over a lack of sufficient outside space and insufficient information with the effect of the development on bats and trees.