TAKE a visit to Ammanford any day of the week and you will see a busy high street and independent shops with a wonderful array of goods on offer.
Add to that some of the big retail names not so much as out of town but just a short walk along a pedestrianised pathway, throw in a few chic cafes and a bus terminal right in the heart of the town a fantastic children’s park, playing field and a theatre within walking distance and one would think that you have a town to rival any in West Wales.
Not so claim County Councillors.
At the full council meeting held on Wednesday (Apr 13). Councillors heard how the plight of small retailers in Ammanford was so bad that tumbleweed was now rolling through the town centre.
County Councillor Ryan Bartlett submitted a motion for a free parking trial in the town in order to help generate footfall.
He said: “What is happening in Ammanford is that I have attended a number of regeneration meetings. What happens in those meetings? They are nothing more than talking shops.
“I remember two years ago there was company specialising in regeneration who came to talk to us. Nothing happened. Ammanford is dying on its feet. What have we had? Paving stones: superficial. The shops have been painted: superficial.”
Councillor Bartlett said what he was asking for was support for the town and that the council acknowledges the difficulties being experienced by retailers in Ammanford.
He continued: “In an attempt to encourage more people to shop in the town centre we would ask the Executive Board to consider the introduction of free parking for a maximum of three hours daily in all of Ammanford’s car parks. We would ask for this to be introduced from May 1 for a trial period of six months.
Councillor Colin Evans said that Ammanford was in a slow spiral of decline: “Over a few years we have seen shop after shop closing down only to be replaced inevitably with charity shops and pound shops.”
He said, to show how bad it is, even one of these charity shops closed down the other day. He said: “When you see a town with the propensity of these type of shops as we have in Ammanford then it is a symptom of a town in serious trouble.
“If you go down to Ammanford now on a good day you are lucky to see a few stalls on Quay Street. Now it is like a ghost town, something you see in one of these Spaghetti westerns where all you see is tumbleweed blowing down the main street.
“Something,” Cllr Evans concluded, “Something needs to be done to breathe life into this town before it is too late.”
Councillor Peter Copper said: “We are desperate in Ammanford. We are the poor town of Carmarthenshire.
“Ryan mentioned he had been to a meeting with officers to discuss what we could do to improve and invest and attract people into the town. I can remember going to those meetings eight years ago. It cost a fortune to bring these consultants in to see what could be happening in Ammanford. To be honest I have stopped going there for the simple reason that nothing gets done in Ammanford.
“No investment goes into Ammanford. Nothing whatsoever. There are not many shops open now. Give it a couple of years and there will be no shops open there.”
There was resistance to the idea of a free parking trial and an amendment was put forward by the ruling group which only acknowledged Ammanford’s difficulties and noted that a task and finish group has been established to took specifically at the issues of car parking charges across Carmarthenshire.
The amended motion called on the Executive Board to respond ‘as quicly as possible’ to the task and finish group’s report after it was published. The amendment was passed and there will subsequently be no free parking trial in Ammanford.
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