“It was anticipated that the first phase of Wellness and Life Science Village would open early in 2021. Does the Leader of Council believe that you are on target to deliver this goal currently?”
Minutes:
“It was anticipated that the first phase of Wellness and Life Science Village would open early in 2021. Does the Leader of Council believe that you are on target to deliver this goal currently?”
Response by Councillor Emlyn Dole, Leader of Council:
“Yes, it remains our goal to open the first phase of the village in September 2021. Phase one is currently being developed by a team of 19 different disciplines from Arup and will comprise the wellness hub which will house the sports, leisure and aquatics while the community health hub will comprise the research, the business development, the education, the skills and training and the clinical delivery alongside the public open space.”
Supplementary question by Councillor Rob James:
“During the signing of the collaboration agreement, six people were in the photo, two of them have been suspended, one has resigned and one has been ditched. The only one that’s left is you, the Leader of this Council. Three years you have been working on this so don’t’ you think that with everything that has happened in the last few weeks that it’s time for you to consider your position as Leader of Council.”
Response by Councillor Emlyn Dole, Leader of Council:
“I really am struggling to understand why the Leader of the Labour Group reverts to this constant sniping at what is the biggest project in the City Deal for the Swansea Bay City Region. It is a transformative project, not only for the Llanelli area, but for the whole region. It will deliver a brand new state of the art leisure centre for the people of Llanelli. It will be the location of the wellness hub, the institute of life science, public open spaces, assisted living, care home, business incubation. A pathway from clinical back through to the community. A community hub for health. So why can’t he get behind it and support the people he was elected to represent? Let me answer my own question, because it’s a Plaid led coalition that’s delivering for the people of Llanelli. Meanwhile, we intend to start building Council houses in Llanelli for the first time in 40 years. What do they do? Oppose it. We announce the building of a new Welsh medium primary school for Llanelli. What does he do? Opposes it. We spend £3m or more buying up empty properties in Llanelli town centre. We launch Opportunity Street under the Regeneration Masterplan for the town centre. What do they do? Oppose it. We put in place a community engagement programme for Tyisha ward to look at deprivation in a whole ward scenario to get to grips with the main problems facing that community in Llanelli in a holistic way for the first time. What do they do? Attempt to highjack the process. The truth is that it all simply underlines their frustration. When I took over as Leader four years ago, one of the first things I did was visit the hub which was temporarily based in Llanelli town centre and what I did was to insist that the hub in Llanelli developed further in that location in the town centre, increasing the monthly footfall by at least 4000 people and extend that same principle to our two other main towns in Ammanford and here in Carmarthen. We opened that last hub in Ammanford on Monday morning. What did he do? Opposes it. The truth is it just underlines their frustration. You had your chance to change Llanelli. You did nothing but talk about it. This Plaid led coalition are doing it and you would rather snipe away and frustrate the process than to get behind it to make a difference for the people of Llanelli. Your comments this morning are shameful. Actually, more than that, nothing less than a dereliction of duty.”