Goods Shed Open Day

by Robert Lloyd

The first Open Day at Llanelli’s ambitious Goods Shed project was a huge success.

St Barnabas Hall was full for a consultation meeting about the plans for the derelict Llanelli Railway Goods Shed building in nearby Marsh Street.

And, despite the wild and windy weather, enthusiastic supporters of the project joined special guided tours of the site – the first time in years the public has been allowed access inside.

“The day was a great success and you couldn’t fail to be impressed with the interest and the enthusiasm shown by the local community,” said Goods Shed project officer Robert Lloyd.

“All those who took part in the tours were surprised at the scale of the project. We now aim to build on the renewed interest in the site and accelerate the plans to refurbish and develop the Goods Shed, a Grade II Listed building of great historical importance.”

The Open Day was held just days after the Llanelli Railway Goods Shed Trust charity secured a licence agreement with Network Rail to access the site and part of the building.

“This is an important first step for the charity as it allows us more opportunities to show interested parties, member of the public and community partners the scale of the project.

“It is THE largest independently organised project of its kind in the Llanelli area. It is estimated the project could take in the region of £3million to complete over a five-year-plus period.

“Since its inception, the Llanelli Railway Goods Shed Trust has shown its commitment to stay in the project for the long haul.

“Projects of this scale take time, but there is a substantial amount of goodwill and enthusiasm for the project out there in the community of Llanelli.

“The dialogue with Network Rail has taken some time to get to this point, but the aim is accelerate the development of the project from here on as we work to gain grant funds and source cash from benefactors, businesses and individuals.”

“This is an exciting project to breathe new life into a derelict historical building.

“The plans to bring the building back into community use include everything from creating arts and crafts venues, offices for start-up businesses and social enterprises.”

“The overall vision sees the creation of a community hub, arts centre, workshops, offices, café and heritage centre – the key to it all being ‘community’.

“This is no ‘White Elephant’ project. We aim to develop ideas and partnerships with the community that will see the Goods Shed used seven days a week. A project of this size and scale must be sustainable in the long term. Given the support of the local community and based on the great response we have already had in terms of ideas for the project the sustainability targets are very achievable.”

The public consultation event at St Barnabas Hall was opened by Nia Griffith MP, chair of the Llanelli Railway Goods Shed Trust.

She said: “Restoring this building will give a huge lift the area. We want to see this historic building restored, and used in ways which will secure a viable income to cover future running costs.

“We have had to do a lot of basic work behind the scenes in preparation for our main funding bids and we are very pleased to have secured funds to employ a project officer, Robert Lloyd, who will now be able to accelerate the process.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about the project should contact Robert Lloyd by calling 07777 683637 or alternatively you can email him on rlloydpr@btinternet.com

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