The ancient abbey at St Dogmaels

Many residents living in St Dogmaels will go to bed on 31 March in Ceredigion and wake up on 1 April the following day in Pembrokeshire.

Control of the village has been split between the two counties since 1832 but the whole community is now to become part of Pembrokeshire.

The changes follow a ruling by the Boundary Commission.

Small areas of Carmarthenshire - including Clunderwen - will also join Pembrokeshire and in all about 1,000 residents will be affected.

Pembrokeshire councillor for St Dogmaels, Steve Watkins, said the current situation was confusing.

We always maintained that we would be guided by the views of the people living in the two communities Pembrokeshire Council Leader Maurice Hughes

He said there were anecdotes of local authority road sweepers and hedge cutters missing out parts of the village because they were unsure which county they were in.

"The decision is very popular," he said.

"The Boundary Commission consulted with the community council and then the wider population.

"There was a referendum where the vote was something like 93 per cent in favour," he added.

Less council tax

There are various theories as to why the village was split, one of which is that changes were made to help get an MP elected.

An added bonus for those joining Pembrokeshire is that they will pay less council tax.

Their demands on April 1 will be �528 for a band D property compared with �698 for Ceredigion and �689 for Carmarthenshire.

The leader of Pembrokeshire Council, Maurice Hughes, said he was delighted to welcome the new residents.

"We are obviously pleased that the Boundary Commission came to the conclusions it did but we always maintained that we would be guided by the views of the people living in the two communities," he said.

"The feeling was that they wanted to belong to Pembrokeshire.

"This was particularly marked in St Dogmaels," he added.

Pembrokeshire Council has been publicising the changes in leaflets to every property in St Dogmaels and Clunderwen in Carmarthenshire.

The leaflet contains information on the Authority's front-line services such as refuse collection days.

Public meetings have also been organised in the two villages at which senior councillors and officers will be present to answer queries.

The first meeting is at Clunderwen Community Hall on 21 March, followed by a meeting at St Dogmaels Memorial Hall on 24 March. Both start at 1900 GMT.