Progress report on the key regeneration sites in Llanelli
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Richard Youle, local democracy reporter
Like every town and city there are key development sites in Llanelli where progress ranges from very little, to well under way, to completed.
Some are being driven forward by Carmarthenshire Council, others by private owners or a trust. The aim of all of them is to secure viable uses of buildings and land, and help revitalise the town.
Here is the latest on five sites in or around the town centre:
Land at Maes Y Gors, Tyisha
Carmarthenshire Council knocked down four blocks of 1960s flats – Ty Elizabeth, Ty Cydwel, Ty Meriel, and Ty Howard – two years ago. The buildings consisted of 44 flats and maisonettes and were deemed past their best.
The demolition was part of a wider plan agreed by the council’s cabinet in 2019 to revitalise the area, following a consultation with residents. The aim was to replace the flats with more modern housing and introduce offices, shops and community facilities in Tyisha. “It is time for change and by working together we really can make this happen,” said cabinet member for housing, Cllr Linda Evans, in October, 2019. Funding of £9.3 million was allocated to the Transforming Tyisha project, as it was known.
The Covid pandemic hit in March, 2020, affecting all manner of regeneration projects. In August, 2021, Cllr Evans said the council was seeking a developer to build a range of housing and re-landscape the Tyisha area, and a blueprint showing a potential “boulevard” from the train station to the town centre was published. In September, 2021, cabinet agreed to test the market on its proposals.
The blocks of flats known locally as the “4 Ts” were knocked down early in 2022. Nothing has been built in their place yet. Asked for an update, Cllr Evans said the council was seeking a development partner to build mixed-tenure properties at Maes Y Gors and other sites in Tyisha.
They’d be for first-time buyers, families and social housing tenants. “While the foundation of the Transforming Tyisha project is based around the building of new properties at Maes Y Gors and other sites, substantial steps have been taken to improve other elements of the area,” she said.
This work has included measures to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour in what is a deprived and densely-populated ward, such as invesmtent in CCTV and an order prohibiting certain activities, which Cllr Evans said had led to a 34% reduction in overall crime. “These steps will ensure that new property is brought into a community and environment that is thriving,” she said.
Llanelli Goods Shed
Network Rail handed over the keys of this vast 149-year-old goods shed to a heritage trust early in 2021. The Marsh Road building had ceased its designated use in 1966, and the Llanelli Railway Goods Shed Trust – set up in 2011 – secured planning permission and around £800,000 of funding to revamp the office block at one end into office space.
The new-look offices were formally opened in October, 2022, by the then First Minister Mark Drakeford, who revealed that his father proposed to his mother at the adjacent train station. Part of the office space is used by the Transforming Tyisha project team.
A range of events are also held there, from family days to workshops to cycle proficiency sessions. There is a community cafe, plus two “pod” rooms and a recently-acquired train carriage reconfigured into a socialising and health space. A second train carriage with an ecological theme will open shortly.
The trust has also repaired areas of the goods shed roof and floor, and created the framework for a community garden. If funding can be secured, a second phase of the project would transform the main shed building itself into a fully usable space.
Raffles nightclub building
Plans to knock down a nightclub where the final song ever played was a smoochers’ favourite – Babe, by the band Styx – have come and gone, but the Murray Street building is still standing.
Proposals by a company called EON Investment Ltd in 2017 to build a five-storey block of flats and commercial units there didn’t materialise. It was reported that the company, which had acquired the lease and was trying to negotiate a longer-term agreement with Carmarthenshire Council – the building’s owner – had secured a £750,000 Welsh Government-funded loan, subject to conditions. Bosses at EON Investment said at the time they were impressed with the council’s commitment to regenerating Llanelli town centre.
In 2020 a company called Pass Property Development put forward plans to knock down what had become an eyesore building and build 12 flats in its place, but they have remained on the drawing board. Then, last November, trustees of a charity called Helping Homeless Veterans-UK voted to buy the former nightclub in order to create 14 flats for ex-service personnel and their families.
“We will now start the process of obtaining grants to complete this work and we will be visiting the property to make sure everything is secure,” the charity said at the time. Asked this week for an update on its plans, the charity said there was “far too much red tape” involved and that unfortunately it would not be able to move forward with them. The council has been asked to comment.
Ashley Pass, of Pass Property Development, said he was supportive of the charity’s plans for the building, but that there was still the option of the demolition and 12 new flats. He said the cost of building the flats and the former nightclub’s location were challenges, and that it would be preferable for him if a housing association or the council agreed to acquire the finished building.
Mr Pass said he contacted the council a few weeks ago with this suggestion. He added: “There are a few ideas floating about for the building – it’s about getting one over the line.”
Market Street North scheme
Carmarthenshire Council had been working on plans to encourage more footfall on Market Street for years and submitted plans early in 2020 to demolish the former Cambrian Hotel and Barbican pub and some adjacent units on the corner of Market Street and Stepney Street.
The hotel building dated from the 1800s and was home to family-run restaurant Altalia for 18 years up to December, 2019. But the majority of the units were empty and, according to the council, no longer fit for purpose. The idea was to create a contemporary scheme consisting of flats and commercial units – called Market Street North – and the existing buildings were demolished.
But the council’s planning application was held up after being called in by the Welsh Government on flooding grounds. Late last summer the council announced that work on the Market Street North development would start shortly, with completion of 10 two-bedroom flats and five commercial units expected in December, 2025.
Asked for an update, the council said work on the £4.5 million project was progressing well and due to finish next spring rather than December.
Cllr Hazel Evans, cabinet member for regeneration, leisure, culture and tourism, said: “We have recently been to market to explore interest in the commercial units and are taking forward the interest that has been shown. We will continue to market the units over the coming months in an attempt to secure tenants in advance of the units being available for occupation.”
YMCA building, Stepney Street
Workers in the town contributed their pay towards this grand red-bricked building overlooking Spring Gardens which opened as a Young Men’s Christian Association to a the sound of a hymn around 115 years ago. Over the years it was home to swimming baths, a gym, billiard room, and then a fancy dress shop, newsagent and hair salon among others, but it fell into disrepair.
In the summer of 2020 the council unveiled proposals to restore it and create flats, commercial and office space, while also replacing a two-storey building at the rear with a new four-storey one. The council said last year that work on the £5 million project – part-funded by the Welsh Government – to create four commercial units, four first floor offices and eight four-bedroom flats above was progressing well. Work has now been completed.
Cllr Linda Evans said the energy-efficient flats were the type of accommodation most needed by local people. Cllr Hazel Evans said: “A number of interests have been forthcoming in occupying the retail and office spaces and we anticipate a number of the units to be occupied over the coming months. We are still open to interest.”
What else has been going on in Llanelli?
The biggest project by far is the Pentre Awel healthcare, research, leisure and housing scheme on the outskirts of the town at Delta Lakes. The £200 million development is being funded by the council, the UK and Welsh Governments and – in later phases – the private sector.
Pentre Awel will consist of four “zones”. The first zone will include a new Llanelli Leisure Centre, two swimming pools and a hydrotherapy pool, clinical units such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy run by HywelDda University Health Board, plus a cafe and education, research and business innovation space.
It is hoped that Pentre Awel – one of nine city deal projects for the Swansea Bay City Region – will generate 1,800-plus jobs and boost the town and county’s economy.
Meanwhile, in the town centre, plans to revamp the vacant former Odeon Cinema – more latterly Theatr Elli – don’t appear to have moved forward. Six years ago planning permission and listed building consent were given to renovate the 1930s Art Deco structure following efforts by volunteers to improve its interior. The building had closed in 2012, and copper and other materials were stripped from its exterior by vandals.
The group behind the plans, Calon Elli, said in September, 2018, that its proposals included improving the ground floor kitchens and toilets, having three cinema screens on the ground floor, and renovating the upper auditorium area so it could host a luxury cinema, dinner functions and concerts.
Speaking in December, 2020, the building’s owner, William Ratti, of Calon Elli, said one of the cinema’s screens and the bar and café were ready to open but had been hampered by coronavirus restrictions. He said a grant he had been working to secure for years had been approved but that he was unable to accept it due to commitments that came with it, along with business uncertainty.
The timing, he said, could not have been worse.
In May, 2022, Mr Ratti, a former records boss, said in a video that the stalled redevelopment of the listed building needed £2 million to bridge a “conservation deficit”.
He said he was more positive than he was in 2020 but that every penny thus far had come from him. “That’s obviously not a situation which is tenable forever, because the money is just going one way, and it needs to come back at some point,” he said. “We’re working towards opening a section.” The Local Democracy Reporting Service has tried unsuccessfully to contact Mr Ratti to ask for an update.
Any other developments on the horizon?
As well as some of the projects above, Carmarthenshire Council has funded smaller-scale regeneration in the town centre in recent years by bringing empty properties back into use, and last November it secured £15.5 million from the UK Government to do just that with the former Woolworths building, Vaughan Street.
The Levelling Up Fund money will also be used to improve Spring Gardens, Central Square and Cowell Street. There could be some adjustments to the project but the money will need to be spent by March 2026.
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