Councillors for Whitland have been discussing capital funding for the town as part of the Local Authority’s ‘Ten Towns’ initiative, and a possible additional car park for the town.

Carmarthenshire County Council’s ‘Ten Towns’ initiative is to support the economic recovery and growth of rural towns across the County.

The initiative was established as a direct response to the Moving Rural Carmarthenshire Forward Plan, which sets out a number of key recommendations to support the regeneration of rural Carmarthenshire.

Discussing the subject at January’s meeting of Whitland Town Council, prior to the commencement of the meeting, Rhian from Carmarthenshire County Council requested if the Council would re- consider financially part supporting, in conjunction with the already approved grant, the proposed car park in St Mary’s Street.

Councillors advised that a proposed car park had been depicted on the pre-planning application and raised the question why £100,000 of grant money along with an unknown amount of Whitland Town Council’s money was being considered by Carmarthenshire County Council to fund a car park that the developers were considering anyway.

The response explained that this was a pre-application and the plans could be changed.

The Council requested if the promised information relating to the possible site behind the Co-op on North Road had been received from the Regeneration Department at the County Council. It was confirmed that the information is still outstanding despite Rhian requesting such.

It was discussed that this was originally a car park but had recently been turned into a ‘bus park’, without consultation, and now with the new purpose built bus park being opened, Councillors consider that this site would be a better location for a car park with the costs being much less than the proposed St Mary Street site.

It was highlighted that the Town Council had requested a meeting of the Ten Towns steering group numerous times since October 2022, all to no avail.

Whitland Town Council consider that the group should be supporting the Council and Carmarthenshire County Council officers regarding possible other sites and projects rather than just supporting the St Mary Street site.

As part of a Digital Project from the ‘Ten Towns’ initiative, it was confirmed that the website was due to go live at any time.

The Clerk has a pre-arranged telephone call with one of the County Council officers to go through the paperwork to enable the Council to re-claim the costs they have incurred funding this project.

There is one invoice outstanding relating to the digital housing of the website.