PLANS to build a further four blocks of flats at the site of a former university halls of residence in Aberystwyth have been approved despite numerous objections.

Developers will now build four separate blocks of flats on the Bryn Derw site on Stanley Road - one four storey eight-flat block, two three storey six-flat blocks, and one two storey four flat block after consent was given by planning committee members on 8 November.

The latest phase of the scheme for the site came after an initial plan for one larger single six-storey block of 24 flats on the site was withdrawn last year.

A similar scheme for the 24-flat six-storey block - sent back to planners and approved earlier this year - attracted numerous objections over traffic, noise and anti-social behaviour fears, but will also be built on the site alongside the new blocks.

The latest approved scheme also attracted objections, with responses including “on grounds of inadequate parking provision being proposed which would exacerbate parking problems in the Buarth Road area,” planning documents said.

Highway safety concerns; loss of green space; a lack of parking; and over-development of the site were also given as reasons to refuse by objectors.

Aberystwyth Town Council raised several objections to the building of the four blocks of flats saying that “road infrastructure is inadequate for the traffic generated by the size of the development”, and adding that there was a “lack of parking, waste storage and bike storage” in the design.

No material objections were raised over highways, traffic or parking issues.

Under the latest scheme, four of the ground floor flats across the blocks would be earmarked as wheelchair accessible affordable homes, documents outline, while 55 car parking spaces to service the site as a whole - inlcuding the already approved six storey block - would be available.

“The proposed development is considered to be sensitively designed as not to compete with the asset in terms of prominence on the hillside, rather it has been designed as to appear as an extension to the street scene of Stanley Road and Elm Tree Avenue,” a Ceredigion County Council planning officer report outlined.

The report said that “it is considered that the proposed development will not have an unacceptable adverse impact on highway safety and movement, and there is sufficient capacity within the existing highway network to absorb the traffic created”.

Committee members agreed to defer powers to officers to approve the scheme subject to conditions once a full agreement on the affordable homes at the site is agreed.