My Pride In The People Of Llanelli & My Love For Llanelli

WHY CITY STATUS?

I would like to go back a little way into the history of Llanelli. It is very interesting and very powerful. I look back at your ancestors and I am in awe of their courage. We can be proud of them. 

We, like them, will be ancestors one day and I hope that we will be looked back on by the future and they will see that we have made them proud with our strength, our kindness, our generosity and caring about others whoever they may be. I hope we would have paved the way for future generations and we would have helped our neighbours ,visitors , friends in their time of need. This is why civic pride is so important for our community.

There are many examples in Llanelli’s history of all of this but one is particularly powerful for me. I am sure that many of you already know this story but I did not. I was deeply moved by what happened. I call it:

The Working Community of Llanelli

In 1866, due to so many people dying of cholera,the local board of health asked Westminster for help and their request was rejected. 

So the people of Llanelli decided to help each other to try and build their own hospital. The local board of health and the people held a meeting and they retained a house of refuge in Kings Square. In the meantime , the local gentry set up a charity called “The Llanelly Cholera Relief and village Hospital Fund.” 

In spite of the severe poverty of local people living in dire conditions, hence the cause of cholera,they put their pennies in every week and at the end of the year they had raised enough money for the first hospital. In 1867, they were able to employ a nurse.

This is what I mean when you can be proud of your ancestors even though they suffered severe poverty.

Unfortunately we are now in a situation where food banks are the norm. I will be writing about that in my next article.

So, why city status and who is leading this initiative?

The Llanelli Chamber of Trade and Commerce is leading it and David Darkin is the president and I am the secretary.

For me, it is about civic pride. I talk to a great many local people about this and I have often been met with a sneer or a laugh, negativism and low expectation. 

An example I was given was someone who I believe is allegedly standing for election in Llanelli  who said that city status for Llanelli was like putting lipstick on a pig.

 I was stunned. This person thinks that the town he wishes to represent thinks Llanelli is so ugly that he compares it to a pig.

I have been scorned but when I have talked about city status in depth people have changed their attitude and offered to help. It takes perseverance to deal with that.

 The negativity has been hard to cope with but watching people change their minds is very encouraging.

What I have to make very clear is that this is an application led by the Llanelli Chamber of Trade and Commerce and there is much to do as the application process demands quite a lot so the volunteers in the Chamber are working very hard because they believe we can do it.

I am in touch with 2 Facebook pages, Beautiful Llanelli  and Llanelli Town Centre Comings and Goings and it has been absolutely fascinating. 

There has been a bit of  the usual scorn and criticism but I have not had much personal rudeness which is lovely. At the same time, people have been incredibly helpful. I talked about the 50 photos of buildings we need and, as I said before, you are all amazing. You have given me so many ideas and even one photograph already done and quite a few offered and loads and loads of suggestions. I am absolutely thrilled.

Now, I would like to make something very clear here. We are trying for city status now for a very particular reason. There is only one way to gain city status and it is :

• A Charter to the King, through the Cabinet Office

People believe that you have to have a university or a cathedral. This is not so. It is a fallacy. There are towns like Northampton that have both and they are not cities.

For his coronation, the Welsh-speaking King has not dealt with any applications for City Status so we decided to jump into the deep end and swim with the sharks. 

We cannot guarantee that anything can come of this. It took Wrexham four go’s before they won it. 

But this is the time and we are going to give it a good try. In fact if we fail, the next time will be easier because we will have done all the basic work required. The first effort is always the hardest as we have never done anything like this before. We have to have the support of the County Council and various other local councils have to be approached. 

The Rural Council and the Town Council are up for it. Our MP and AM are all for it .We will also need the support of the Welsh Government. As you can see there is a great deal to do. If you can help us here, please do.

At the end of the day, it is you , the people of Llanelli, who must support us. If we get shortlisted, Westminster’s civil servants will send people down here to interview you.

 IF YOU DO NOT SUPPORT US, WE WILL LOSE.

To borrow from the First World War poster of General Kitchener:

Your Community and the  Chamber of Trade and Commerce need you!

Addendum (4:47pm): Since this article was published, we were contacted by Llanelli Rural Council who clarified that they were mentioned in the article body erroneously.