PLANNING protestor Iori Jones has ended his hunger strike on the steps of the Senedd after being promised a meeting with planning chiefs.

The 75-year-old former roofer broke his fast after 26 days refusing solids at 4.30pm on Friday on learning officers were prepared to speak to him.

And the Llandovery pensioner celebrated the news by munching a Mars bar – his first food in almost a month.

“It was sent to me by the four-year-old son off one of the policemen here in Cardiff Bay,” said Mr Jones in a phone call to the Guardian.

“He told his dad: ‘this is for that man on hunger strike down at the Senedd’ – it brought tears to my eyes.”

Nevertheless, Mr Jones remains defiantly on the steps of the Welsh Assembly where he has nothing more than a beach cover to protect him from the elements.

Mr Jones, who is locked in a long-standing dispute with Carmarthenshire County Council’s planning department, said he was confident he would get the chance to voice his grievances shortly.

But he warned: “If they go back on their word and I don’t get a meeting I will just go back on hunger strike again.

“I will be staying here until I get it sorted.”

His feud with the local authority dates back to 1979 when the then Dinefwr Borough Council granted permission for a lorry depot near his home.

The depot has since been turned into a pet food factory with a council gritting depot nearby.

Mr Jones has repeatedly called on Assembly environment minister Jane Davidson to intervene in the dispute.

One of his supporters, Jacqui Thompson, said: “Iori will not come back home until he’s had this meeting.

“Hopefully then he will receive some answers.”