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Home Archive Columnists Christopher Dean How Do We Improve Llanelli’s Financial Situation?

How Do We Improve Llanelli’s Financial Situation?

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Christopher Dean
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This article addresses the thorny issue of how Llanelli gets back on its feet financially with a series of questions.  I hope after people have read they will respond below, promote a debate and find some answers.

What are the prospects for Llanelli over the next ten or twenty years?

Are they; All good & booming; All about survival; Mostly doom, gloom and misery?  

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The response from everyone who answered the question was not good, very poor.

Here I put forward sixteen questions that need debate and decisions. Some of the questions which need answering are:

How will Llanelli re-invigorate itself? 

Does the coming election hold a fruitful promise for Llanelli or an empty promise?

Why was the Wellness Centre built out-of-town when the out-of-town concept combined with online shopping have both been shown to remove businesses, customers & life from the town centre?

Where will the staff come from to work at the Wellness Centre?  Nobody seems to know how many people will be needed to work there but judging by the size of the development it will be a lot.  Will they come from Llanelli, Swansea, Cardiff or rural Wales?

Not Llanelli or rural Wales as there isn’t enough of the necessarily skilled workforce available there. 

So how will staff from Swansea or Cardiff help to regenerate Llanelli?

Is it possible to develop the empty shops & buildings in the town centre into housing which would bring more life into town?

What plans do the town or rural council or Carmarthenshire County Council have for the future which will inspire a reboot?

Does a reboot for Llanelli depend on Llanelli itself or a wider region with more investment outside the town across West Wales for example in new tourist attractions or businesses? 

What tourist attractions would be appropriate to come here?

What businesses might be inspired to come to West Wales?

Where would such investment come from – UK government or Welsh government?

It might have come from the EU if the UK hadn’t voted for Brexit.  

Does that provoke some regret? 

Would a change of governing party in either the UK or Welsh government be of help to Llanelli on this question? 

Can Llanelli dream big or is it too much to think about? 

Who can answer these questions?

It seems to me that the country needs investment and re-invigorating after so many years of austerity under Tory rule that are still having an impact on our lives.  

Will we get such investment under a new UK government whether it be Tory or Labour run?

Rebooting Llanelli isn’t dependent on Llanelli itself but a much wider regional and national focus by promoting more employment to put money back in people’s pockets then we can think about how we want to spend it.

Some people will say that asking questions like these will make our situation worse.  I say that without finding some, perhaps not all, of the answers we risk being promised everything but getting nothing.

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Christopher Dean
Christopher Dean

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320 COMMENTS

  2. It’s not difficult. Offer lower rates to local businesses to attract business into town which can sustains within town centre. All big shops have left after that 6 year lease where a huge fee was charged afterwards.

    • Curtis Elliott it’s not that easy. There is next to no parking to support the town compared to trostre hassle free parking. I recently visited a town in Yorkshire that offered one hour parking free and as often in the day as you liked. It was heaving and every shop was filled.

    • Lorraine Edwards this could be another incentive to get people into town, they currently offer two hours (I think) in council car parks for free on Thursdays. I believe the council have the ability to offer a free day in each town to encourage people in. It’s all well and good getting food festivals + superhero days in, they’ll make money on these appearances so the parking just adds to the stress.

  3. You could start by educating most of the population of the town a little bit?
    So that they dont blame theyre own socio-economic failures in life on “immigrants” and “brown people” …Also, weed out some of corrupt vermin in the council,…if that fails,.. maybe a demolition ball?

    • Or a good ‘ol fashioned neutron bomb?
      That will bloody learn all of ’em pesky ‘immi-gantz, coming to our cunt-ary steeeleng our dole money and our minumum wage jobs

  4. If this descends in to a racist rant there will be no hope for our town centre. Carmarthenshire council need to negotiate with out of town shops to encourage a small presence in town. Shops like Tesco, Marks and Spencer’s should be allowed to have a Metro or something similar. Allowing Iceland to close down has impacted on many.
    Encourage footfall by having free parking days regularly.
    Not everyone can drive to Trostre/Pemberton.
    Offer reduced rates/rentals to independent shops to enrich choice for shoppers.
    Carmarthen is a much nicer town to shop in as it has a large variety of independent shops

  9. Llanelli was once a busy Town,with a great deal of passing trade,then along came the bright idea of pedestrianising the road and turned it into a “More “shopper friendly”zone It did not work.who wants to carry heavy shopping bags.

  11. Lol. That’s right folks!!…them pesky immigrants again eh?? (Some of whom are doctors, nurses, have P.H.D’s, and qualifications in medical science)…they just CAN’T WAIT to take Dai Jones’ job, stocking shelves at Aldi.

  12. Let the traffic back and more free parking it’s why everyone goes to Trostre Park. Councils need to stop using the motorist as a cash cow.

  13. Start with getting rid of choose life he’s earning a fucking bomb for doing fuck all there’s more druggies in town now than ever, stop taking in ex convicts and paying for their rooms in the vista lounge building that’s thousands of pounds a week, and stop the greedy bastards expenses nia griffith claimed a shit load last year and for what?? Pathetic..

  14. put more decent shops in town just like it was years ago there is enough charity shops and hairdressers and vape shops , candle shops get more shoe shops , clothes poundstretchers woolworths

    • People don’t have enough money to spend to support local shops. Like so mamy towns and citys across the UK the falling standard of living we’ve all suffered since the tories came back into power in 2010 have impoverished every aspect of once succesful towns like Llanelli.

  16. I think the town had been allowed to become a cess pit for drugs and drug dealers, freeloaders and lazy lay abouts. Think these locals need to get on a boat and go to a country that will improve their lot… like Russia. Give me an asylum seeker who is prepared to graft over a grifter who just wants to take and blame non whites for their failings, personal issues and the state of the town. The council HQ being moved to Carmarthen has spelt the demise do the town. The lack of investment, planning, foresight and decay in llanelli can be firmly laid at their door. Time to bring the HQ back to Llanelli. Carmarthen has benefitted greatly and therefore now should we.

    • Mark Bowen Are you ask me if you are sorry no I am not a candidate or a councillor just a member of the public trying to get something done for Llanelli

    • Mark Bowen Sadly I can’t as you have to live here for more than 2 year to even stand but it does not mean that you cannot make sure the people in the council do as they said they will and keep a check on them and the money that is going around to level up Llanelli

      We have a huge problem with rubbish.

      Our drainage is shocking the amount of block drains is unbelievable

      drugs is a huge problem we need to get on with find a away to deal with that as that does have a huge affect on the towns

      We can push the council who have 3 shops in town to drop the rent and give a local a chance

      Parking is huge problem

      Bus service huge problem

      NHS dentist where are they in Llanelli

      Road are not ready for any more traffic coming this way

      Future planning of Llanelli

      We can all have a say in where Llanelli is going

      If anybody listen that a different matter

    • Mark Bowen I know someone that did just that, and got in. They ganged together and voted against that person on everything!

    • Chris Lewis not true at all. Theres some excellent people with all their heart. Andrew Stephens and Sean Rees are examples …

  21. Where has this so called clean up tidy town money gone so far just clean a lamp post and pavement
    and a circle nobody know what the hell it is

  27. I think we need to accept that high street retail is dead in terms of attracting big ticket stores. Llanelli doesn’t have the pull for them and they only come if the ccc offers them a rent deal but as soon as that deal ends they leave. Truthfully, the only way I can see a turn around (and it’s never going to to happen) is if it was all shut down and completely overhauled into a eating and living quarter where people can live in the upper floors as apartments, ground floor food outlets and office/hot desk space and more boutique type shops for small businesses. It would be great for young people to have affordable flats they can buy and then have a great social space to work and eat with a big focus on the indoor market for fresh produce and locally made products. There is such a massive opportunity for this. However the rents are always going to be too high and there’s a whole big town clean up that needs to happen first.

    • Adrian Sturrock it would be lovely to be sat outside a nice restaurant of an evening with a nice hustle and bustle in the pedestrianised area but I don’t think Llanelli is ready for it yet.

    • Bee Kingshott I too have been saying the town centre needs to be regenerated into some new idea. Mine was to design the shops into a bigone features of the past , creating a museum feeling to the young centre and attract visitors to get the old memories of a shopping centre. A town eith a sensory feel. Living quarters above. A health hub for ailments like an old apothecary. Old Chapel furnishings, bring the heritage back into the town. We need a public committee to show the council what we want. CCC aren’t brainstorming enough. But one thing that is required is to remove the unfortunate drug users from the centre of town. I know they need help but thectoen centre is not the place for all to see.

    • Bee Kingshott In the movie of my mind, this is how Llanelli will be. The centre will be a mishmash of local artisan shops (at low rent), with restaurants and cafe’s to encourage a social, community atmosphere. And with a lot less concrete on show. (Perhaps it would be good to also not have the buildings painted the same colour as the sky. We need to add more colour. A lot more colour.)

    • Adrian Sturrock I love this. Each property different pastel colour 😄 Things will have to get worse before they get better but we can hope.

    • Bee Kingshott I really believe that people and environment are intrinsically connected. Mood, behaviour, energy levels, aspiration, pride. These are all linked to the environment. More investment in the town’s heart can and will affect all people for the better.

    • Adrian Sturrock definitely agree with you there. Llanelli is a wonderful place to be. We just need a central place to connect as a community.

    • Adrian Sturrock I love this, it would be great to have some tapas/small eats places to go to aswell and the nightlife could improve too. High street shops are dying a death these days anyway so independent shops is what is needed 100%

    • Katy Evans Totally agree. Evolution has meant that trying to re-shoe horn traditional town centre shops back into these streets is pointless. Repurposing for culture and leisure is the way forward (which can include local small businesses). Let’s hope the council planners can see this too.

    • Adrian Sturrock evolution is key, so many people are stuck on “we need the high street shops and it’s the councils fault that they aren’t here” but there aren’t many of those shops anymore and customer shopping styles have changed drastically and completely so an over haul would be the only thing that would work I feel

    • Katy Evans Exactly right. Calls for “Bring our shops back” isn’t going to cut it. It’s not the council’s fault that the shops are gone, but it is their fault that the town is so slow to respond to social change and buying habits. I do feel that if they concentrated on building a tourist environment (which will include a face-lift for the town centre) then this would generate more spending, and the place would come alive again.

    • Deane Bowler Self-pity does nobody any good 49.000 people live here it your home take it back build up community the town is not dead yet but if the public don’t do something it dead

  31. You want an answer to 16 of your questions, bloody hell I could write a book on those 16 answers

    You are sitting on a gold mine but I feel the people in this council are so stupid they can not see it

    Its called reinventing yourself Llanelli ,it could be a fantastic place for tourism.
    First you will have to get the drug problem out of Llanelli alltogether.
    You have some of the most fantastic wetland area and beaches on your door step

    Already very good cycle paths and walking areas so much green areas,and forest, and a fantastic river and area if you just bloody well get of your backside and clean it up.

    You are the gate way to Pembrokeshire.

    You have fantastic people that live here that know so much about this area

    You have a fantastic history to tell people.

    Great rugby 🏉 ground and team with a good history

    8.5 mile Beach just up the road

    Just look at all the things you can do when you go inland from here

    Clean up the town centre the council themselves have 3 empty shops that have done nothing. Give a local a chance to start up something by offering affordable rents.

    You have 15 million going to be invested from the levelling up fund

    Tourism is an industry now what else is there here you could build on?

    Nobody in the right mind would come to Llanelli, if you have no plans to develop and go into the future and get your self out of the self-pity.

    Nobody from the 80s on wards ever planned for the future but now you are in the future as its here now, if you are ready or not
    Your roads are poor so how can people come here, your parking is crap, bus services are now a joke

    Like I said many times before you need a good clean out of the people in Carmarthen County Council and put in younger people who have the energy and foresight to plan a bright future for Llanelli.

    I have said before start a community tourist information hub in town get everyone involved that will bring the community together

    • Martin Hutchinson People in here do not realise what a fantastic place this is. Only when it is gone and totally degraded through lack of care, will they wake up and realise what they had. If everyone just did a small bit, even just picked up their own litter and poo. Trained their kids not to throw their vape containers everywhere and smash bottles, what a start that would be!!

  33. Boycott Nia Griffith until she revokes her membership of the genocide-complicit, blood-soaked Labour Friends of Israel organisation!😡 Any affiliation with the hoodlum state of Israel cannot possibly be good for business going forward!

  35. Give the building a Good clean/_coat of paint also fine owners who do not maintain buildings, get rid of the white elephant canopies, that are ruining the buildings, improve bus service, I would say plant trees shrubbery but it will not be maintained or used to throw litter in or vandalised or even so three

  37. Remove ourselves from camarthenshire Council. Go back to a llanelli run council, run by the people for the people. Lower rates. Stop knocking down your heritage for matchstick box buildings. Work together as a community. Use the 15 millions pound to improve the town center. Remove parking charges. Open the council building car park to the public. Open the door to public consolations to see what they would like. Encourage independent shops.

    • Jenny Tillier hopefully people will see through the smoke and mirrors. Opinions do seem the vary. I just hope people vote on today’s political problems and not the problems of 40 years ago. Today is a very different world to then.

    • Ceri Johnson I think out of town shopping places have ruined town center’s up and down the country. There is room to move the town forward. We just need to move it forward as a community and support it. We also need to council to work for the people’s best interests. Keep the heritage thats there. It is possible. Money is tight for most people so anything that happens needs to be viable. I prefer to visit shops than order online, surely I’m not alone on that.

  38. Sort business rates and rent out, you can’t expect local businesses to move in when they can’t even make enough money to pay rent and rates. Rates is arguably the main issue, they need to either be scrapped or redesigned so it actually reflects how much money you make not just the size of your shop.
    Websites would also help a lot of the local businesses, embrace online shopping, I feel like the Indoor Market would benefit from it a lot, if I could go to a website where I could see exactly what’s shops/stalls are there and then be able to buy from that website for delivery or pickup.

  40. We don’t need a town we got trostre and pemberton now . Bull dose the lot and build homes and a river side venue for cafes and artisan shops

  41. Carmarthenshire have completely screwed a thriving town. Even trostre not worth the visit! We haven’t even got a proper a&e in Llanelli and they want to change it to a city. Every green space is turned into a housing estate or another Aldi, Costa etc..

  42. More police presence with powers to remove drugged/ drunk people and dealers who operate in broad daylight. Clean the town and paint,take down the canopies charge less rent encourage more independent shops.

    • Andrew Mogz only for 3 hrs now in pemberton and 90 minutes on match days. Fined over that time. Won’t be long before they bring it in the trostre side.

  46. Take all the individual shops and indoor market stalls and put them in one massive unit down trostra, everyone will go inside it when down there and turn the town centre into cafe bars, pubs and restaurants. Let’s get our younger generation staying in Llanelli for a night out instead of going to Swansea/cardiff. Also Swansea and Cardiff people will come here for a night out instead.

    • Wendy Mathias Wowww didn’t know this! Can we protest or pointless? Guide me Wendy you are more intelligent and wiser than myself 😃

  48. car unfriendly councils wondering why people can’t be arsed traveling to the town centre anymore.

    20mph nonsense
    ever increasing car parking charges.

    I’ll just get it delivered cheaper via Amazon next day to my door

  50. Invest money down the beach area..theres loads of land there ..bars ,restaurants, high end flats. Get something down there that cud rival the mumbles…outdoor events like concerts..

  52. Cover Stepney street (like McArthur Glen) and have the biggest market in the area – like Clydach & Caeru were. We can’t compete with Trostre but we can offer a good alternative option.

    • Paul Brookfield McArthur Glen is definitely a success story to follow, even their empty shops look inviting! #vision

  53. Another idea – vote for different people, we have had a Labour or Plaid dominated council for 80 years and people think things will change!

    • Paul Brookfield I agree but we’re thin on the ground for choice at the moment. The Conservative track record and performance in recent years nationally doesn’t exactly inspire confidence either, does it?

    • Paul Brookfield lol..did you have a think before you said that ,or are you another Tory that doesn’t know why we vote in a GE..🤔

    • Nic Nic Thomas Good but probably in the background pulling the strings and making millions off his Climate crisis agenda with the Sustrans charity chums.

    • Marc Dicks he wrote a post saying he’s deleting his accounts as he is having hate for his climate agenda and 20mph speed limits, so he’s standing down as first minister for climate change

    • Marc Dicks to be honest, I don’t know the statistics so I’ll have to just go with you on that. All I can say from my personal experience is that I haven’t had to wait long for any my own treatment. But i agree that some are waiting a ridiculous amount of time for some operations etc.

    • Marc Dicks that’s crazy! Fortunately I was seen straight away for mine in Glangwili, but I did have to get there myself as it was 4hrs for an Ambulance.

    • Marc Dicks to be fair my father only waited 1.5 hours for an ambulance to Morriston, but the fact the paramedics had to wait with him in an observation room for a few hours until a bed became available easily explains why people have to wait for ambulances, the paramedics are tied up in other ways. The teams at the NHS really do work their socks off – but I’m afraid it will always be a bottomless pit. I don’t think there will ever really be a solution – no matter how much money gets thrown at it. Treatments improve but their costs also increase. Millions get spent on machines for cancer treatments etc and before you know it they’re out of date and need updating, it’s a vicious circle for some things I think. 🤔

    • Steve Shawzy Shaw Yes Welsh Labour is more concerned with spending money on vanity projects and the climate crisis than essential services.

    • Marc Dicks yes, but then again they all have their own daft pet projects, don’t they? But I think we’ll leave it there at this point- the conversation has been going well 😂😉😊

  57. Make sure there’s never a tory or any right wing goverment again and suuport proportional representation for the future.

    • Wynn Phillips you mean like the 100% Closed Lists for future Senedd elections when constituencies like Llanelli will disappear?

  58. You are not going to attract most the major business as there is Trostre, somewhere that is open 7 days a week and in the evenings. People who work get the chance to spend their money after 5pm or the weekend. Town is available on a Saturday only, no business can survive on one days income. If you have family going into the town centre on a saturday is the last thing you want to do. If you can’t attract the bigger business you need to offer lower rates for local businesses or local people who are willing to start something. If costs are too high its almost impossible for smaller businesses to even contemplate starting. You want to have independent businesses being able to afford a place to rent and offer something different to the major players. People here will support local, but the council need to support local too. Plus, as most the town is council owned, give it a good clean up and lick of paint. The place hasn’t been looked after at all and has seen better days, it doesn’t even look appealing to businesses or shoppers. Oh, and Parking

  59. Town centres across the Country are finished, I believe as per plan. As the units empty they will be converted into new apartments/flats etc as such creating new neighbourhood’s. These neighbourhood’s will already have convenience stores, pubs & coffee shops and will be an easy transition. As such it will be a solution to the UK accommodation problems. As for us, we will shop in retail parks & online – it’s all change & no going back.

  60. Ban out of town premises rental… Business lettings in Llanelli are a joke when it comes to prices… 100s of empty shops because the cost to let them is way too high… Its as if carmarthenshite county clowncil are doing this deliberate in order to sell it off to developers…

  61. Bring back Tesco M&S and others to Llanelli town centre. Build a glass dome across Stephney Street and Vaughan Street for a dry shopping zone, lock it up each end after close of business. Get rid of Labour run Llanelli get our home less and veterans off the streets.

    • Elma Louise our town is the pits at the moment bring it back to glory for town people to shop at instead of Trostre park.

    • Alan Hughes We like Trostre but we enjoy going into the town to see all the old buildings! It would be so vibrant there if revived well! Love Llanelli!

    • Would have loved to have been here in the 90s to see it as it was before all the big chains took over in the newer shopping areas.

  63. Get rid of the labour influence in both llanelli and Carmarthenshire both councils have no plans to reintroduce a strong and financial policies to encourage new investment in the town

  65. Sadly it seems that all our town centres are struggling these days with the rise of online shopping which was accelerated by the lockdowns of the pandemic. Independent shops are a great way of making a town one that draws in people but they need peoples support. Rents and associated costs are also a HUGE obstacle and have always said isnt it better to rent out a space for say £600 per month for example for 5-10 years rather than rent it at £1000 for less than year and the tenant leaving as they cant afford it?

  66. What I find is if you make it beneficial to work rather than to be on benifits it will make the economy thrive so once you can work out that being a full time work is better than unemployed or part time worker we have a chance but until then you want get workers to work shops regardless how much you improve city’s 💂‍♀️ IMO

  67. Well it’s Lee Waters MS for Llanelli he couldn’t run a bath he is not concerned about Llanelli too busy looking into his financial gains for his vanity project 20mph and now his scare mongering Net Zero agenda.

  69. I think a complete change of view as to what a modern town centre should look like is needed. We all have to admit that, due to out of town retail parks and a switch to online shopping, the likelihood of filling many of the empty units in town with shops is limited.

    So we need to turn some of these empty buildings into apartments. Imagine how many apartments could be constructed in the Barclays Bank building.

    Having more people living in the town centre would attract the opening of new cafes or coffee shops.

    Some of the empty retail units could also be changed into office space for new local businesses.

    We need to focus on alternative plans as filling all the empty units with shops is unrealistic.

    • Marc Howells I do think there’s scope for local artisan shops to be successful if rents were low and the town was reimagined as a tourist / heritage area. The money lost in rent would be more than made back through tourism. I wonder whether turning the buildings into mere apartments and office premises would result in Llanelli having no discernible heart/centre at all?

    • Adrian Sturrock – Yes I agree with you but I doubt all the current empty units could be filled by local artisan shops. Some of the units (eg Barclays Bank) would be too large for such shops.

      Some of the units need to be kept for future retail use, but it would be better to have most of the buildings used for other purposes rather than remain empty.

    • Marc Howells I agree that there could be some flats but people need local places to work and spend those earnings or all revenue drifts away. We need to think holistically to create a town where everyone can actually live, not just sleep.

    • Gloria Rees – The multi storey car park could have designated spaces for residents. Alternatively, some designated places could be made available in the car parks by the cinema, by Vauxhall Surgery or by Peoples Park.

  74. People might not agree but why are the empty buildings allowed to remain so scruffy ,owners should be made to keep them up to a certain standard ! Makes the town look awful !!

  76. To stop bringing the same shops llanelli on ready as !!! How meny hair dresses are they?? An now there’s 1 wasting in old willow when could of put a shop we anit got please don’t put another vape shop there now😆😩, we could do with better especially with summer coming up

  77. How many voted brexit when you were *told* it would decimate funding?
    How many of you are refusing to acknowledge that fact?

  80. Get rid of labour government ,Llanelli and the rest of wales is finished as long as their in charge , no one wants to come to wales anymore , we might as well shut the door

    • Carl Hughes I was thinking last night how nice Llanelli beach used to be. They had all the lighting all the way down. CCC took it all away. Makes you wonder where our money goes. My council tax has gone up again this year

    • Dafydd Simons yea, that made no sense to remove them dude,once we stopped being a Dyfed things quickly went down the pan for Llanelli

    • Carl Hughes theyve single handedly ruined the whole beach too. It’s one big mess now. Used to have a lovely sandy beach when we were kids

    • Dafydd Simons we did indeed buddy,the beach and town were lovely back in the day,town centre is a dead sad place now,used to be a time on a good you be bumping shoulders with people it would be so busy,market was always full,the town was full of life,it’s sad to see what’s become of Llanelli dude, not all change is good

  91. Clear the junkies and the councillors thats ruined the centre then lower rates get rid of some traffic lights as they are just causing congestion around the town an make it easier to park!

  92. Should never of built Trostre park , should have expanded the Town , money is spent on useless things like roundabouts 😬…… Carmarthen town centre is thriving , so there’s no reason why Llanelli town centre shouldn’t be if things were done right , the big brands have over run all the small businesses and they can’t compete, it’s the way the world is now , financial bullying

  94. Clear all the money grabbing councillors and get rid of all the rubbish of the street first open new shops clothes shop furniture shops menshops for small men and women start. Looking after. Llanelli and the. Llanelli people Like. Llanelli was it was good to see Llanelli with loads of shops thriving like it was come. Coucilers get a grip weeneed. Llanelli in with the new and out with old

  97. Change the council and go back to Dyfed we all said once we amalgamated and became carmarthenshire Llanelli would suffer

  98. Always being ignored is the fact that there is little to no parking for free.
    Giving the odd hour here and there does not cut it.
    Doom was created by the increasing parking restriction around the town centre and the cost to park.
    Now you have to implement continuity to provision of free parking for a couple of hours in the car parks. Pay for addition hour at let’s say 50p which you could purchase at time of parking.
    Implementing this allows people to shop without additional costs.
    Most people drive to shopping that’s free.
    Look at out of town retail for example.
    They stay busy and most stay open.
    Of course there are casualties, but the majority stay open and thrive.
    Lots of traders have pointed this out but it’s dismissed!
    I would appeal that the council open this up to trial for 2 years or more as Rome weren’t built in a day.
    Run studies on the improvement made and once in place for a minimum of 2 years double check on its feasibility.
    It’s a small cost to help out our town. There’s potential to reinstate a good shopping experience with this support.
    Remember that towns are busier when people can park it’s just common sense.
    Businesses only open where they see potential to succeed.

  99. I think it’s far too late at this stage.
    A town needs shops. We had them.
    A town needs a good market. We had one.
    When Tesco,s built their supermarket
    The town was butchered to accommodate
    This. They were not there very long were they?
    Damage done.
    I recall the bustling town in the 1960,s.
    Busses. They were everywhere and went everywhere.
    The town thrived.
    Saturdays were wonderful.
    Reasons to buy some trendy gear.
    I forget the barbers( my father’s moustache?)
    Restaurants abounded. One had to call in the Falcon to buy some LP,s.
    Need a new turntable? Thomas Brothers
    First port of call. There was another hi fi shop.
    The creme de creme was the market.
    Tobacconists, bike shops( Ron Hodge)
    Cinemas? Quite a few.
    What’s left now?
    Charity shops?
    The title of this little rant could be
    “How to destroy a town”.

  103. Get somebody that really cares about Llanelli town ,back the way it was in the 80s,if you look back at the photo’s then,town was busy 👍👍

  104. Get rid of big corporations, listen to the people, get rid of corruption and the council need to stop charging loads for rent

  105. Does the senedd say how budgets have to be spent and enforce their corrupt ways on our housing, education , farming and health?😢

  109. Open up the centre to one way traffic, with parking on one side of the road, 60 minute waiting, also disabled & delivery zones.

  110. Llanelli is not on its own many town centres are beginning to die , I think there are a lot of great ideas in this chat.
    I do think Llanelli has something a lot of towns don’t. It’s a seaside town , drive tourism, market the beach, help business that can do affordable holiday lets or B&B
    The only way town centres will not disappear will be councils being proactive and not let it happen

  111. Llanelli is finished. It’s full of scum and druggies.
    Generations of people who think it’s perfectly acceptable not to even think about working for a living.
    Until there is a significant change in attitude and government there’s not a lot a small minority can do to change things.

  112. I’m Charlie, the Welsh Conservative candidate for Llanelli in the General Election.

    Some interesting questions posed.

    I need to address the line in the article of “Tory austerity”. Funding for public services has continued to rise year on year from Westminster with Welsh Government receiving the highest ever block grant. UK Government has just invested £15 million in Llanelli. What Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru choose to do with that is up to them. Westminster might be a convenient scapegoat, and I get annoyed by the comings and goings in London as well, but we really need to look much closer to home.

    They’ve thrown away £100,000s on 20mph to start with. The only Government in UK to cut the NHS and education budgets. And Llanelli Labour Town Council wants to chuck money at making the town a city centre.

    I look forward to listening and hearing from you all in the months ahead about how we can invigorate town, as well as setting out my own thoughts, but look no further than Carmarthenshire County Council which is stuffed with Labour and Plaid councillors, and Cardiff Bay which is stuffed with Labour and Plaid Senedd Members.

    Charlie Evans

  113. Build a university! This will get students in that will actually use the town centre putting money in it to invest. Having a university will bring many benefits to Llanelli including job and status rather than pushing all the young to somewhere like Swansea or Cardiff

  117. By not closing business, and having better rates for them. By not spending the towns money on stupid ideas like walls on roundabouts, and make Llanelli town feal lass like a doss house and more welcoming, like it used to be. But this is what the council has been working towards.

  118. Easy, get rid of plaid cymru who runs the carmarthenshire council, and get rid of labor running the Llanelli council. The town is in a terrible state, it is so filthy with rubbish thrown everywhere. Lyndsay Thomas is right, we should have never gone under the Carmarthenshire council, we were much better of running our own affaires.

  120. even charity shops have given up in llanelli. you know its bad when a charity shop leaves 😅 if they could finish the buildings that have been left under construction for years (the old barbican / altalia) that would be a good start!
    I thought they had plans to turn vaughan st into a sort of wind st (drinks and food businesses only) – apparently the leases on those buildings are coming to an end and being held back for businesses who want to offer food and drinks (mcdonalds going back to its old location at the bank etc) and then turning the old altalia buildings into attractive shops and a nice walk into the town itself, at least i thought that was the plan.
    Getting these things right can make it better for businesses to eye up the town and consider giving it a go but hardly anything has been done and it looks like its on hold indefinitely.

    the ymca building looks good, but the “sunken gardens” area looks dreadful and constant construction there. like any money pumped into these things will inevitably need high rates and rent to pay off and the town isnt ready for that.

    ymlaen llanelli are trying to get people in the town with some events but the events are held right at druggie central, more work for security to sort and so on. people setting up early for the food and drinks festival have druggies pestering them until they get their fix in boots.. not a great start to the day like and then turning that same street into an alcohol/food district isnt a great idea.

    imo there needs to be something that is a big draw to the town something like a leisure centre like lc2 with slides and so on would be a great thing to do as the current leisure centre is old and tired and pretty basic.
    people visiting a place like that will more than likely want to pop out somewhere for food and itl go on like that. build it and they will come.

    when the scarlets stadium wasnt in trostre all of the local b&bs, pubs, clubs etc were bouncing after a game. so with that way of thinking there needs to be things in town going on that bring people in.

    aside from the odd event there isnt anything here worth making a day out for but theres sooo much potential.
    festival fields is a waste. sandy waterpark is nice but could have loads going on around there.
    llanelli beach could have so much there as well
    etc

    • David James-Turvey absolutely this. We didn’t come to the cartoon capers as there was no shops we’d visit whilst there. As a family who don’t yet drive or have a car, diverse shopping is a must for the town, which means lower rent so the shops can actually afford to stay in the town. With buildings going to waste, no one paying rent on them, whoever owns the buildings are not making money either way with the prices they currently are. For myself, the works leaving was the kicker.

  121. As a Swansea person I have fond memories of Llanelli Town Centre, with my mother we used to visit Llanelli at least once every two weeks, all the shops in Swansea had been destroyed in the blitz. It’s a shame that Llanell town centre has been allowed to deteriorate so much but I feel that Llanelli is not large enough to support a town centre and Parc Trostre. I feel this is where the problem of the town centre lies.

  124. The town is a disaster dirty roads overhead glass by the shop. so many have closed down. Only two shops for ladies clothes. One for men’s wear. Not much variety . we need some decent councillors who support the town . Shoppers will come back if there is something decent to offerer. It needs a good shake up

  127. I just don’t bother going to shops other than once a week for food. Everything else online. It’s too much hassle with the 20mph crap and ridiculous parking charges. Swansea Enterprise Park is the only place I would consider going – still 30mph and free parking.

  129. get rid of the labour MP and MS , replace them with representatives that will work to improve the area and benefit the locals !

  135. lower business rates for renting shop space, ample cheap parking near where you need to shop. dont mess about with active travel…if you’re on a bicycle you’re not going to be able to get your weekly shop…same for busses. Get pubs in town thay can attract live bands of all musical ilks……banning smoking, booze and energy prices all rocketing along with business rates = collapse of pubs.

  138. Some dull cunts in this thread blaming the council and wanting the old LBC back. They’re the ones who moved Tesco out you dull cunts. All the usual excuses as well. Blaming £2 parking and not enough shops. You’re the dull cunts who stopped using the town. You reap what you sow. Nevermind. It’s the oldies who moan. They’ll be dead soon enough.

  144. Give low rent for 3-4 years so shop owners got a chance to build there business. Council don’t want to help anyone.

  145. Reduce rents abolish business rates and spruce the place up. This will encourage more businesses to come back to the town and more customers.also do free parking for everyone who spends in the town

  148. It’s easy to say its corruption there not spending money there doing this or that, the reason Llanelli are on there arse is because of no money and the people and the authoritie, check out who owns the buildings. Owners or what money they have to invest in brightening the town up with out going through all the rigmarole of planning .get new windows guttering and a paint job like they done in Pembrokeshire Brighton the place up. Yes cheaper rates and rents also parking for people in town. Or set a park and ride where they can run a bus from machynys every half hour to the town centre. They had a save our llanelli before the Borough was finished and one council took over it will never get back to the 60s 70s when it was a bustling Town On line buying what more can you say .. my rant is over hope your all having a nice good Friday 👍🏻

  150. Restart the town centre, get every empty shop and plan a launch in a years time where every shop opens the same day . Approach companies like fat face levis Costa lush etc enough to fill each shop. A massive relaunch all in one hit. Then Approach market traders and get at least ten to c9me over a three month period . Make all shops dog friendly. Get a focus group together to plan it and then just do it

    • Ray Jones why would fat face etc come to a small town? There is no way you could make it worth the effort. And there is already a Costa in town.

  156. Well if the government reduced energy costs instead of being greedy cun** that would definitely help pretty much everywhere.

  159. Stop clinging onto the romantic nostalgia of the past. Retail won’t be the answer. A whole new plan needs to be made up around leisure. Only then will some retail reestablish. Bars, restaurants, clubs, entertainment. Thriving town and city centres all tend to revolve around some sort of leisure. The idea of it being another shopping centre is a dead one.

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