Llanelli officially launches city status bid
Stephen Price
Llanelli Chamber of Trade and Commerce has officially launched the town’s campaign to achieve city status.
If successful, Llanelli hopes to become Carmarthenshire’s first city, and Wales’ eighth city – joining Bangor, Cardiff, Newport, St Asaph, St Davids, Swansea and Wrexham.
Sharing the news on Facebook on Saturday 30 March, the Chamber of Trade and Commerce said: “Today, we launched our City Status campaign for Llanelli.
“Our campaign will focus on promoting the best that Llanelli has to offer, celebrating our achievements and highlighting investment opportunities – Ymlaen Llanelli!”
Speaking to Sky News in January, prior to the official launch of the bid, Dame Nia Griffith, Labour MP for the Llanelli Constituency told Sky News that Llanelli needs to “be ambitious”.
Regeneration
She said: “I very much welcome the bid for city status for Llanelli because I really feel it’s a way that we can bring people together, we can think about how we can improve and regenerate our town.”
Welcoming the news on her Facebook account on 20 March, she shared: “Congratulations to the Llanelli Chamber of Trade & Commerce for taking the initiative to bid for city status for Llanelli.
“This offers us a real opportunity to unite behind our town, to celebrate our fascinating history, to recognise our assets such as our many innovative industries and businesses, our stunning coastline and our great people, and to inspire us to be ambitious and drive forward the improvements we want to see.”
Opinion is divided on city status within Llanelli itself, with many online commentators complaining about the town centre and boarded up shops, with one asking if the launch was best announced so close to April Fool’s Day.
One commenter, in support of the bid, however, said: “Good luck Llanelli chamber of Trade and Commerce in your bid. It’s a pretty tough ask but any profile of ambition by town business is to be applauded and may do some good regardless. It can certainly do no harm.”
When questioned about any costs involved, a response from the Chamber of Trade and Commerce to one commenter said: “This is the launch of the campaign. The next stages are all about public consultation.
“No taxpayers’ money has been spent on this campaign. It’s being driven by businesses seeking to promote the great aspects of Llanelli to attract investment.”
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How many times can I bang my head against a wall? What a lot of fluff and nonsense. I know David Darkin very well. This is Labour trying to make a noise in the town. One question. How will being called a city materially improve matters for the people of Llanelli?
Made all the difference in Wrexham, surging crowds through the shopping centre, skyscrapers popping up, high paying banking jobs for everyone, councillors patting themselves on the back. Only the last one is true.
Llanelli ain’t a city wot are these people on 🤦🤦
So instead of a ghost town, we’ll be a ghost city. No A&E, abandoned retail and commercial units everywhere, for South Wales 4th largest population centre, we don’t even have a dual carriageway linking us to the jumped up dual carriageway masquerading as a motorway, which will probably be 50mph before too long. It’s probably just an excuse to raise council tax even higher.