This year's Cardigan Christmas lights display will have bilingual seasonal greetings on both sides of town, councillors have decided.

A ‘Nadolig Llawen’ message will be erected at Finch Square, while ‘Merry Christmas’ will again be prominent at the top of Grosvenor Hill, members agreed.

And ‘Nadolig Llawen’ – illuminated by gobo on the wall of Cardigan Castle – will once more be there to greet visitors entering the town from the south.

Last week's meeting saw heated exchanges between Cllrs John Adams-Lewis – who had made the original complaint about the lack of Welsh last month – and Richard Jones.

Cllr Adams-Lewis was annoyed at the lack of a Welsh greeting for what he said was the second successive year, while Cllr Jones accused him of previously refusing to back his attempt to secure a permanent workshop to house and repair the festive lights.

“Why have we not had ‘Nadolig Llawen’ in place again?” queried Cllr Adams-Lewis. “If anything should go up it should be ‘Nadolig Llawen’.

“They have Welsh in Tregaron, Lampeter and Newcastle Emlyn – so why not here?

“People who come to live in Cardigan should appreciate the fact we speak the Welsh language in this town.”

Cllr Jones retorted that new lights had been bought during Cllr Clive Davies’s tenure as mayor in 2017.

“There was no ‘Nadolig Llawen’ with those lights,” he told Cllr Adams-Lewis. “There was a ‘Croeso’ put up in High Street which you complained was facing the wrong way.”

Town clerk Eleri Maskell revealed the council had received a number of complaints about the Christmas lights display following the Tivyside’s report of last month’s meeting.

Three criticised the lack of a Welsh greeting while a fourth bemoaned the ‘pathetic fuss’ over the ‘Merry Christmas’ sign.

Deputy mayor Cllr Olwen Davies was among a number of councillors who lamented the fact the controversy was, in effect, a PR ‘own goal’ following a recent wave of positive publicity for the town.

“It was unfortunate to say the least,” told colleagues. “I believe that next year we should abolish having any language signs up in the main street and just have two gobos projecting a bilingual message on the castle wall.”

Cllr Philippa Noble paid tribute to the team of volunteers who, she said, had undertaken the ‘huge task’ to be out ‘in all weathers’ to install the lights.

And, on learning that a ‘Nadolig Llawen’ lights greeting would cost the council £3,500, she said: “We just cannot justify that kind of money at a time when so many people are struggling to pay their bills and we can get gobos much cheaper.”

Cllr Jones said the council needed to hire a facility to store and test its festive lights which were currently housed under the grandstand at Cardigan RFC where there was no electricity.

“Home-made lights would cost less and add to the feeling that Christmas in Cardigan is unique,” he added. “If we want to do things properly then we should have a proper facility.”

Cllr Adams-Lewis suggested another option would be to ask whether pupils at Ysgol Uwchradd Aberteifi or students at Coleg Ceredigion could provide illuminations.

“It’s important that we have our language as part of the town display,” he stressed.

Members agreed to a suggestion from Cllr Richard Davies to add a home-made ‘Nadolig Llawen’ sign at Finch Square to next year’s display.