Collective aims to breathe new life into town

A SCHEME aiming to breathe new life into Llanelli town centre has been launched, with the goal of uniting the community to crowdfund and bring empty buildings back into community use and provide spaces for new businesses to kick-start themselves.

The newly formed Llanelli Township says it is focusing on one building at a time, with a vision of attracting people back into the centre and giving new business ideas a launch pad.

The scheme is initially focusing on establishing its first threestorey building, which will be known as Home Llanelli.

That exact location is being kept under wraps for now, but Scott Griffiths, founder and secretary of Llanelli Township, said that the entire scheme is a “democratic, non-profit co-operative, where people will decide through voting what they want to see developed in the town”.

He added: “Ultimately we want to have residential at the top, the middle floor can be office space for people or new business starters to use, and the ground floor for groups and social gatherings, but we want people to shape it to have their say.”

A public meeting has already been held at the library where an overview of the project was presented and guests were invited to share their views.

The whole idea is based on a scheme in the Netherlands known as Thuis Wageningen (Home Wageningen) which has been running in the historic city of Wagengingen for almost a decade. It is a space where people meet each other, connect and share talents, ideas and resources – and this is what Mr Griffiths wants to create in Llanelli.

He said: “The population of Llanelli is around 50,000, which means that we have the power to buy a building by contributing around one pound each by people becoming members of the scheme. We want to buy a building and operate it democratically for the good of people and businesses. That first building will be known as Home Llanelli.”

He added: “Essentially we want to start with one building with space for several uses, then over time open another where perhaps businesses can operate from, with little overheads as the building will be community-owned and mortgage-free. These may be businesses that started at our first building and then move out to the new site. We aren’t talking about taking over the town centre, but looking to use empty buildings to create a footing for business growth and social projects and spaces. We want to make the town centre vibrant again.”

A website is being developed and will be fully launched soon, giving more details of the project.