"Llanelli Chamber of Trade and Commerce has announced their campaign to have Llanelli be recognised as a city.
The campaign has received a mixed response with the likes of Sir Douglas Perkins, co-founder of Specsavers, Nia Griffith MP and Llanelli Town and Rural Councils backing the proposal, yet some have raised concerns.
Will you commit to Carmarthenshire County Council running a public consultation, in partnership with the Chamber of Trade, to assess the public appetite for submitting a city status bid?"
Minutes:
Response by Councillor Darren Price, Leader of the Council
Thank you for the question. As you may be aware, I have previously publicly called on the Llanelli Chambe of Trade and Commerce to hold a full public consultation with the people who are Llanelli, before proceeding with any formal bid for a city status. The importance of that public consultation for me is absolutely fundamental. Indeed, I believe it is a duty on all politicians and businesses to listen to the views of the people before going any further on this. In my view, the only way to do that fairly, is to appoint an independent organisation to hold a formal public consultation, independent of anybody or any Council. Indeed, on 6th February 2024, I provided the chamber with a list of possible organisations who could undertake that work on their behalf now I notice that you said in your questionnaire that the town and rural councils back the city status bid, however my understanding is that it is only the Town Council that has declared its support for the bid, whereas the rural councillors simply agreed to send a representative to the bid launch at the end of March.
I understand that you seconded the motion at the Town Council in support of the bid, if I am totally honest, I believe that move was a little premature without consulting the public.
First, there are, of course, a number of unknowns presently. There will therefore be a need, in my view for those proposing the change set out in detail prior to the public consultation, the proposed boundary of the city, for example, any benefits that they perceive, along with any costs. These details can then be subject to that important public scrutiny and debate.
Unfortunately, and I have noticed, there are some early comments from one or two of those supporting the bid which don’t seem to be based in reality. So, for example, I’ve heard some suggest that changing the town’s status to city would bring about a fully-fledged A&E in Llanelli, which clearly isn’t the case. We know that Health Boards decide on service delivery models based on population factors and ease of access locally. For example, we know that the preferred sites for the new hospital within Hywel Dda and in St Clears or Whitland.
We also note the most recent critical care investment in South Wales, the Grange hospital in Gwent has been sited close to the town of Cwmbran as opposed to the city of Newport. So, the case for city status needs to be based on facts and not fiction.
From my perspective, Plaid Cymru’s focus is centred fully on trying to attract inward investment into Llanelli. It is only by creating jobs and wealth that we will turn around and Llanelli’s fortunes, and that’s why we’re focussed on delivering the multi-million pound Pentre Awel development, for example, which will create hundreds of jobs in the town. Similarly, we all need to be focussed on trying to improve the town centre.
Practical improvements, such as the need for a redevelopment of the YMCA building, as mentioned by Councillor Alun Lenny earlier and the redevelopment of Market Street North at a start. These, and the successful £15m levelling up bids are all designed to try and breath new life into the town centre but there is clearly so much more to do.
The Town Centre as we know has been decimated as a result of out of town shopping, clustering and online shopping. We are, of course, now having to react to that reality, and we all need to think about practical ways in which that can be done. Changing the town status, in my opinion, will not significantly alter that.
So, in concluding, I reiterate, my call on the Chamber to consult with the public but only appoint an independent organisation to lead on that process.
Thank you
Supplementary Question by Councillor Rob James
I am glad the Leader has brought up the issue about the town shopping and in the public statement he notes that it was the Labour administration’s choice for the Trostre to be built, has created the problem that we have in town centre, so would he accept that if it wasn’t for myself and others around me, the campaign to actually stop the re-expansion of Trostre, that we were seeing be proposed by your administration, would actually see a far larger transfer and even weakening of the town centre.
Response by Councillor Darren Price, Leader of the Council
Yes, absolutely share your concerns about any future development in Trostre and we certainly don’t want to see any development which brings about further extraction from the town centre and there have been recent discussions at Cabinet level which have confirmed that position and as far as I’m concerned, Trostre is saturated in terms of retail and clearly the strategic error, in my view, in hindsight, decades ago in terms of establishing Trostre and the scales we saw under the Labour administration and in the noughties has created a situation where the town centre is really struggling. It’s not alone, out of town shopping centres across Wales, but that is certainly a factor for the town centre. As I mentioned, there are a number of practical investments that we have made, and we will continue to make over the next few years to try and turn that situation around. But it is certainly not a situation that we would want to be starting from.
Returning to the point of the original question in terms of the city status, the evidence that I have seen, which is based on ONS data going back 20 odd years which looks at economic performance both in terms of creating jobs, GVA and investments, there is no evidence, empirical or academic which suggests that a change of status delivers benefits in those areas. So cities and towns over a 20-year period, towns that are bid for city status and have succeeded and towns that have bid for city status and have failed. Those four distinct areas all show similar economic outcomes in terms jobs, GVA and investment, and so it’s on that basis, I think it’s important that we ask the people of Llanelli what they want to do. If there’s a gut instinct, that they feel they want to become a city for other reasons, clearly there would be a duty on us to support that. But I think we’d have an honest and factual debate in terms of merits of the other case. Thank you.