AN ORNATE lamp post is set to return to the Clarence roundabout in Pontypool after the community council pledged to spend £10,000 getting a replica built.

Pontypool community councillors had been trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the lights, which they believed had once stood outside the Clarence hotel.

There had been confusion because councillors were unsure as to whether or not there had been two similar lamps in both Pontypool and Pontymoile or whether the lights which now stand near the Esso garage in Pontymoile were the same set.

After an appeal for information through the Free Press, resident Gwyn Selway provided the council with the story of the lamp, after digging out the details.

The lamp was regularly moved, first from its original sighting in Pontymoile, because the newly introduced buses in the 1930s were clipping the kerb on it, then again from the entrance to Pontypool Park because it was blocking the gates and stopping the carnival floats getting in.

So it was moved again, ending up outside the Clarence Hotel, before making its final move back to Pontymoile where it currently stands.

Community councillors felt it was an important part of the town’s heritage and want the lights to return.

At a meeting of full council last week, councillors voted unanimously to pay for the replica of the original ornate lamppost.

The money will be sourced from funds the council normally provides to the Pontypool regeneration group, who will now receive £20,000 from the council’s budget rather than the £30,000 they had pitched for.

Cllr Jan Jones, who had been a driving force behind the plans said: “We haven’t ever asked for anything from the regeneration trust but this is important to us.

“It is part of the town’s heritage and I feel very strongly about that.”