ROOFTOP protestor Iori Jones this week vowed to take his campaign back to the Welsh Assembly - but promised to leave his hammer at home.

He now intends to travel to Cardiff Bay to make a personal plea for Assembly Minister Jane Davidson to intervene in a planning dispute which goes back 26 years.

The 74-year-old retired labourer was last week cleared of causing £30,000 of criminal damage to the county council offices in Llandeilo by systematically smashing tiles over three sides of the roof with his hammer.

He has been convicted of attacking council buildings 13 times, usually by climbing on to the roof and smashing tiles.

The latest episode, last April, was part of Mr Jones' lengthy campaign against the former Dinefwr Borough Council and Carmarthenshire County Council who, he feels, should have ordered an independent public inquiry into the construction of a lorry park next to his home in Church Bank, Llandovery.

"If I don't get it this time, I probably never will," Mr Jones told the Guardian.

"I think a face-to-face meeting with Jane Davidson (Minister of Environment, Sustainability and Housing) is now the best chance I have.

"I hope to God I never have to go back on a roof again."

Giving his reaction to being found not guilty by a crown court jury, Mr Jones, who represented himself during the trial, replied: "I wasn't surprised, because I've been found not guilty before and knew it could be done.

"I don't regret what I did because it would be a criminal offence for me to keep my mouth shut over what's been going on.

"When I last appeared in court in 2002, the county council said they were looking into holding a public inquiry. But since then it's all gone quiet.

"I didn't celebrate being found not guilty because I don't drink. I used to like a pint and a game of darts. But after I complained about the noise the lorries were making, the drivers started picking on me and I stopped going to the pub.

"They did me a favour. Stopping drinking was the best thing I've ever done."