Repairs will bring Llanelli town hall back to health

Specialist contractors have been brought in to repair Llanelli’s grade II listed Town Hall.

The building, designed by William Griffiths in early 1890 and built between 1892 and 1896, has suffered the effects of the weather over its 100 year life, and Carmarthenshire County Council is now faced with bringing it back to health.

Scaffolding has been up for some time already, but set-backs due to the severity of the damage means it will be up for several more months.

The building currently houses offices for council staff, together with meeting rooms used by the council, its partners, local groups and for civil wedding ceremonies.

Council bosses have apologised for the delay, and have vowed to keep disruption to a minimum whilst work continues.

Mark Davies, Property Services Building Operations Manager, said: “We had planned maintenance at Llanelli Town Hall, but unfortunately this revealed unforeseen remedial work that we have had to address.

“We are facing a long repair process due to the specific nature of the repairs required. We appreciate the impact this has on staff and visitors to the building, but we are endeavouring to keep disruption to a minimum. This has included discussions regarding the scaffolding, which we have considered dropping and rebuilding, but this will increase costs at a time when budgets are limited.”

Repairs are being made to the main roof, where water ingress has caused damage to the stair well below, as well as timber window lintels, guttering and the lath and plaster ceiling.

Severe corrosion to the internal cast down pipes has also caused dampness to several rooms.

Reinstatement works include the replacements of decorative mouldings and complete redecoration to match the original and existing surroundings, and will be carried out in the same way as builders and decorators would have undertaken the work over 100 years ago.

Work has required approval from CADW, Planning and Environmental health to ensure that the reinstatement works have been undertaken to conservation standards, including bat surveys as per requirements.

Cllr Colin Evans, Executive Board Member for Technical Services, said: “This work is costly and time consuming, but also gives our technical officers a rare glimpse in to the past. We are carrying out work sensitively and with traditional methods, whilst trying to minimise disruption to everyone who uses this fine building. We hope that people will bear with us, and hope that work will be complete by the Spring.”

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